Categories: OLD Media Moves

Facebook disables Crain’s New York account after pot story

Crain’s New York Business had its Facebook account blocked by the social media company earlier this week after it posted a story about the medical marijuana law in New York.

Matthew Flamm of Crain’s writes, “Like other news organizations, Crain’s pays Facebook to push selected stories in users’ feeds, a program that has become a major source of traffic for publishers and advertisers.

“But in a 6:21 a.m. email Monday, we were notified that our ‘account has been permanently disabled’ as a result of illegal activity. ‘Ads are not allowed to promote or facilitate illegal activity,’ the Facebook ads team explained.

“The ‘ad in question was a post for the Crain’s April 20 cover story on New York’s medical-marijuana law, ironically called ‘This is what legalized pot looks like in New York.’ Crain’s had been promoting the story on Facebook ever since it was published online on April 19.

“By around 1 p.m. on Monday, Crain’s account was restored, but the shutdown showed the difficulty Facebook can have in discerning objectionable content, as well as the toll its mistakes can take.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.