Facebook sued for blocking hemp and CBD ads

A U.S. company has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Facebook for refusing hemp and CBD ads. Cannaramic Media, Inc. and its founder, Felicia Palmer, are standing up to Facebook as the social media giant has refused to publish ads promoting an online cannabis conference. The case has implications for the whole hemp industry and highlights Facebook’s inability to serve the growing sector.

A U.S. company has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Facebook for refusing to advertise. Cannaramic Media, Inc. and its founder, Felicia Palmer, are standing up to Facebook. That’s because the social media giant has refused to publish ads promoting an online cannabis conference.

Palmer, the founder of the hip-hop news website SOHH.com, said she paid Facebook to promote publications about CBD. Even though, Facebook blocked the promotion, claiming it “does not allow advertisements that promote the illegal prescription, or recreational drugs.”

Facebook’s Policies are frustrating

Above all, the company has not provided users with clear rules or reasons for their decisions. To clarify, the media giant simply closes advertising or deletes the accounts and pages it arbitrarily decides to violate its opaque advertising rules.

The lawsuit cites a “pattern of censorship and suppression of information and content related to the legal use of cannabis. This is for the Facebook platform, as well as in the popular social networking application, Instagram, also on Facebook.”

Attorney David C. Holland, Executive Director in the New York chapter of NORML, the cannabis advocacy organization, represents Palmer and Cannaramic in the lawsuit.

HIA in a national campaign

As a result, the U.S. Hemp Industry Association and a group of U.S. firms are in the midst of a campaign. They aim at making changes to Facebook’s policies toward hemp products that include a digital ad in New York City’s Times Square urging “Facebook: Stop Hemp Censorship”.

In addition, HIA is strengthening the campaign. So, it will run daily until August 24, through a grassroots effort among its more than 1,500 members, the Association said in a statement.

Hemp entrepreneurs across the country

Colleen Keahey Lanier, Executive Director of HIA said: “With the approval of the Farm Bill, looked like there would be a new dawn for hemp industry stakeholders. They aim to absolve the confusion about whether hemp is a federally controlled substance.”

“Furthermore, hemp entrepreneurs across the country are being denied access to one of the world’s most powerful marketing platforms for small businesses restricted to obsolete policies that continue to combine hemp with marijuana.”

“Facebook’s new artificial intelligence technology is already obsolete if it continues to recognize cannabis images as a controlled substance in general,” added Keahey Lanier.

Facebook policies affect other countries too

Problems with Facebook do not end at the U.S. border. Therefore, companies in Poland were also affected by advertising closures. These are just two recent examples of the disadvantages of the company’s policies at the international level. Certainly, the policies will continue to generate controversy.

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(Featured Image by Pixelkult)

First published in HempToday.es a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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