Facebook has canceled ads for a virtual convention organized by conservatives to discuss “cancel culture.” The organizers are not even sure they will be allowed to stream the event on Facebook.
The virtual convention, called CancelCon, streaming on Thursday, has speakers such as Dave Rubin, Adam Carolla, Ben Shapiro, and Dennis Pager. It is co-sponsored by Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth group, and No Safe Spaces, a film addressing free speech.
Organizers claim that they have been unsuccessfully trying to run ads for the event on Facebook. The director of No Safe Spaces, Justin Folk, showed Newsweek their multiple attempts to run CancelCon ads on Facebook. He said the status of the ads would go from “active” to “inactive” within a few minutes.
“Our social-media consultant has notified Facebook of the problem, and they are never able to resolve it. We’re still trying to buy ads, but none are running, and Facebook just has no explanation as to why,” Folk explained.
The cancelation of the event’s ads continues to strengthen the claims by conservatives that social media platforms censor conservative voices. Facebook and other social media platforms tend to practice online bias against conservatives and have a vague implementation of their censorship policies.
CancelCon will stream on several Facebook pages. However, considering the likelihood of getting canceled, Folk said the event would also stream on NoSafeSpaces.com and YouTube.
“We can’t rely on Facebook because things just mysteriously go away with no explanation,” Folk said.
He also said that they would continue to try to run the event’s ads on Facebook.
“Our marketing was supposed to run over the weekend. It’s just ironic that Facebook is canceling ads for “CancelCon,” given the topic of the convention. It’s Fairly common behavior for them. They just cancel opinions they dislike and never say why.”
