Facebook partly removes its advertisement ban on face masks, and will now authorize third-party firms to advertise fabric masks and other non-medical face coverings such as bandanas, the firm reported on Wednesday.
Due to national shortages and concern for medical personnel and other frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company initially instituted a site-wide advertising ban for all forms of face masks, including medical and respiratory masks, in March. The outlaw was also intended to defend it against scams, misleading marketing, and other abuses, as Facebook could not reasonably vet any face mask promotion ads that started flooding online marketplaces early in March.
As the spread of the novel coronavirus began to accelerate across the US earlier this year, a surge in demand for cleaning products, face masks, and other household goods has created a unique predicament for online advertising and e-commerce businesses. Merchants have been found gouging prices, making false health claims, and failing to deliver purchased goods, leading Amazon, Facebook, Google, and other companies to institute several prohibitions and other measures to curb exploitative behavior.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control adjusted their face mask guidance in April — people are now advised to wear outdoor masks and in places where social distance is difficult, such as grocery stores. As a result, Facebook removes the ban so users can search and purchase fabric masks better. The ban on medical and respiratory masks such as the 3M-made N95 mask remains the same. Just yesterday, 3 M sued an Amazon Marketplace seller for selling fake N95 masks at inflated prices, illustrating the ongoing problems plaguing sales of medical face masks which are now being tightly controlled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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“Most of the health authorities now advise wearing non-medical masks — and in some places masks are needed for activities such as taking public transport or visiting a store — and we’ve seen people and businesses of all sizes working to fill that need,” Facebook’s Rob Leathern, its product management director, wrote in a blog post.
Any limits still exist on Facebook. This says businesses or individual retailers would need to have accrued at least a four-month period of Facebook ads for business masks to be accepted. This means, first and foremost, that the products that can be advertised are handmade cloth masks and other forms of face coverings made of fabrics or reusable material.
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It is also limiting sellers in countries “where we’ve seen high numbers of policy-violating advertisements advertising medical supplies during the temporary ban” to selling only non-medical masks within the country where the seller is based, notes Leathern.
