We realize it’s been a while since we last published something, and my how things have changed. The pandemic is still in full swing making life incredibly difficult for small businesses and even nonprofit organizations…or at least those who are still tryign to survive. We have lots of help for you on the way but first a disturbing trend in social media. During this current political season Facebook and Twitter are taking some disturbing turns in efforts to “prevent foreign influence in U.S. elections”. For several years now, rumors have made their way around the internet that Facebook adn Twitter have been censoring the content provided by conservative voices and organizations. While this probably happened, it was very covert and hard to prove.

During 2020 however, these two social media pioneers have begun to more openly censor voices and sites for which they seemingly disagree. While social media has long been the place to air opinions of all kinds along with dirty laundry, it was generally equal in its censorship or regulation of all voices for the most part until now. This is generally in keeping with social media’s status as a “platform” for content and not regulator of it unless of course local laws were broken and not even in those cases at times. This is an important legal definition under which Facebook, Twitter and others operate. The screws are tightening some and content providers should take note, especially conservative leaning ones.

In an effort to detour outside influence in [mostly U.S.] issues has changed requirements for ads under its “Political and social issues” category. These changes include disclaimers as to what the ad is about, who sonsored it, their U.S. address and whether they have two-factor authentication enabled for added security. A group called TechSoup, which is a fabulous resource for non-profits and NGO’s, put together an article here: How Nonprofits Can Navigate Facebook’s Political Ad Ban.

While this article only applies to a certain group of people an dproviders, the precedents set are worth watching not only for future Facebook Ads but also for future published content. We still recommend Facebook and Google article posting and pages because they are still the top resources for customer leads and nothing has risen to challenge them in these spaces. yet we grow more concerned that if left unchecked then more types of content could be “managed” as well. Contact JKL Works if you have any questions or concerns and we can help your business navigate these changes.