Facebook Rejects Ad Criticizing Zuckerberg PAC

Facebook rejected an advertisement from a group criticizing Fwd.us, the new political action group started by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley bigwigs.

The social network nixed an ad from CREDO Mobile, a mobile carrier "that lobbies on progressive issues," according to the Washington Post. CREDO mobile launched a campaign to protest ads funded by Fwd.us that support Keystone XL Pipeline proponent Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.

Zuckerberg's lobbying group lauds the conservative Graham for supporting the pipeline and CREDO Mobile has criticized both Facebook and Zuckerberg in the past, but often still bought ads on the social network. From the article:  

The most recent CREDO Mobile ad shows an image of Mark Zuckerberg’s face next to the words “Hey Zuck, Pull your ads supporting Keystone XL.” The ad also uses the Obama for America logo to represent the “O” in Keystone.

The ad was rejected by Facebook which said that the ad violates Facebook policies because it uses Zuckerberg’s image. Facebook also said in a statement that it often rejects ads with Zuckerberg's image because it tends "to be confusing for users, and frequently misleading. Users may click on the ad thinking it is a message from Mark or from Facebook, not understanding that they are actually in an advertisement seeking to take advantage of Mark’s image.” 

CREDO Mobile political director Becky Bond criticized the policy, but now the mobile carrier's only option is to run the ad without Zuckerberg's image on Facebook.
 
While we understand that it might be confusing for users on Facebook, we also see CREDO Mobile's point. If Zuckerberg dabbles in politics, he becomes a public figure whose image will likely be used. 
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