Facebook Removes Political Ad Saying Trans Athletes Will “Destroy Girls Sports”
Facebook has removed a political ad saying that trans athletes will “destroy girls sports”. It has rejected it as a paid advertisement and will have a “fact-check” label applied to it if posted organically on the social platform.
The ad features a male runner easily winning a race against female competitors while it also condemns the support of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., for the Equality Act, which the ad says would “destroy girls sports.”
The Equality Act seeks to amend existing federal civil rights legislation to ban discrimination in the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.
The sports ad is part of a larger $4 million campaign from the Michigan-based American Principles Project (APP).
Facebook confirmed to ‘NBC News’ that the ad will no longer be able to run as a paid advertisement because of the rating from independent third-party fact-checkers. The ad can still be posted organically, but it will carry a fact-check label.
Paul Dupont, a spokesperson for APP, said the group was told it “would need to modify the ads in order to have them reinstated” on the social platform — both as paid ads and as organic posts without “fact-check” labels — though he said the group has not been given “guidance as to what changes would add the necessary ‘context’ that they are supposedly missing.”
Gillian Branstetter, a trans advocate and spokesperson for the National Women’s Law Center, said that this ad is part of a larger “misinformation campaign targeting trans youth” that exists on social media platforms such as Facebook.
“Certainly it is good that they have taken the extra step of calling out this particular ad with its spurious claims and misleading nature,” Branstetter said. “One hopes that Facebook takes a larger responsibility for a wider swath of anti-trans misinformation that exists on their platform, including and especially lies about transition-related health care.”
The Human Rights Campaign lauded Facebook’s decision to apply a “fact-check” label to organic posts of the ad, saying the APP is “misrepresenting the transgender community.”
“While this is a great first step, we will continue to dialogue with Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms to ensure that APP and their misleading advertisements are labelled for the misinformation they are or removed entirely,” the campaign's president, Alphonso David, said.
Read related myGwork articles here:
World Rugby Considering Banning Trans Women From Women’s Rugby
Trans Players Would Be Welcome In Women’s Football, Says Former England Striker
The International Olympic Committee Will Publish Trans Guidelines After Tokyo Olympics
Teen Runners Sue To Block Trans Athletes From Girls’ Sport
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