Facebook hates sex.
The social media platform currently best known for hosting Boomer arguments made that clear when it reportedly refused to allow queer-, kink- and poly-friendly dating app #open to post ads. According to Business Insider, Facebook has twice rejected the ads, objecting to #open’s use of the phrase “sex-positive” and claiming that the dating app’s inclusive embrace of various relationship styles, including casual hookups and polyamory, does not “reflect the global audience on our platform.”
According to Facebook, such “global user sentiment” does not support apps with “‘couple’ or ‘group’ options” or apps that promote “casual dating,” “hook-ups,” “affairs,” or “mail-order brides” — which, frankly, seems like a rapid escalation. For reference, Facebook does allow ads from dating apps Tinder and OkCupid, which, I can assure you as a user of both apps, provide a platform for most if not all of these dating styles, in addition to all manner of other relationship dynamics and kink communities that exist in the ever-broadening sexual landscape, even if those communities are represented less explicitly in these apps’ branding.
In response to the pushback from Facebook, #open founder and CEO Amanda Wilson has launched a Change.org campaign to get the social media platform to “stop censoring open relationships & imposing your morality on my sexuality.”
In addition to pointing out the obvious inconsistency in Facebook’s failure to enforce the same moral standards on other ads for dating apps — such as an OkCupid ad that asks “foreplay or get right to it?” — Wilson also pointed out the fact that Facebook itself is home to many discussion groups and forums for various kink-friendly and queer communities.
“Facebook has decided that sexuality is only acceptable on their platform if it pleases their ‘global audience’ who, according to them, isn’t quite ready to accept the idea of ‘casual dating,’” Wilson wrote. However, she added, “a cursory search shows that Facebook is home to hundreds of polyamory, ethical/consensual non-monogamy, kink and swinger discussion groups with over 350 thousand active users seeking to engage with those online communities.”
The petition currently has over 1,000 signatures out of a goal of 1,500.
“Help us tell Facebook to stop censoring and devaluing my relationship and the relationships of millions of other people looking for casual dates or interested in alternative relationship styles,” Wilson wrote.
Despite Facebook’s apparent confidence in its “global user analysis,” the platform could clearly use the heads-up about what today’s daters are actually seeking, considering Facebook’s own attempt at launching a dating app appears to be failing.
Here’s a hint: People like sex.
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