« Facebook and Moderation Makes Two,” episode 5. The release date of road 96 approaching, the Montpellier studio DigixArt wanted to promote it on the famous social network. But Facebook simply rejected the ad.
As a reminder, Road 96 is a procedural road trip simulator in which we play teenagers trying to flee an oppressive regime. It is therefore not difficult to understand where this could have stuck for Facebook: the social network took Road 96 for political communication.
A moderation that makes zeal
“I thought it was a joke at first,” game designer Yoan Fanise told the Axios site. It must be said that the advertisement in question, which was therefore rejected by the social network, makes no reference to any political reality. “Escape a country in turmoil” or “Reach the border” being the only readable texts on the suspended ads.
But an e-mail received on June 28 leaves little room for doubt: “Some of your advertisements do not respect our advertising policies concerning social problems, electoral or political advertisements” clarified the social network. In question, the supposed inclusion in the advertisements of “images, declarations or slogans concerning social problems, such as the economy, the environment, civil or social rights”.
Yoan Fanise was therefore offered two options to continue posting Road 96 advertisements: edit them in order to erase these aspects or obtain authorization from Facebook to publish “political advertisements”.
Facebook on edge over political communications
We could laugh at the situation if it did not reflect the feverishness of the social network in terms of political communication. We remember: Facebook was particularly attacked last year over its management of advertisements posted by candidates for the presidential election in the United States. An event during which the social network had to strengthen its policy of moderation in order to avoid repeating the fiasco of 2016.
However, the creative director of Road 96 would do without these complications. In fact, Facebook's reaction even makes him wonder about how the group (apparently) automatically filters ads based on the keywords affixed to them.
"It reminds me of the movie Minority Report," he confesses to Axios. It's a robot that checks in advance what you plan to do and decides for you that, no, you're not going to do that. At this time, Facebook has not commented on the matter or clarified how it automatically scans ads on its platform.
Road 96 will be released on August 16 on PC and Nintendo Switch.
