Everyone knows Facebook is a hub of information. From the latest buzz on what's happening in social circles to politics and the cool way to become active in our government.
Political activity is clearly visible in the posts, on public walls and in the ads. Except for one group pushing to legalize marijuana in California and draw attention to the movement nationwide.
From August 7 to August 16, the social network's 500 million users saw an ad from the group Just Say Now that featured a clip art-style marijuana leaf. But that little green leaf has turned into a big deal. The ad disappeared, but not before helping to bring in 38 million impressions to Facebook and more than 6,000 members for the organization's profile page.
But, the Huffington Post reports Facebook spokesman Adam Noyes said the pot leaf wasn't the problem.
"It would be fine to note that you were informed by Facebook that the image in question was no long[er] acceptable for use in Facebook ads." Noyes told the group via email provided to HuffPo. "The image of a pot leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies."
But Just Say Now isn't relying solely on Facebook to help them reach that young group of voters. They've been hitting college campuses with voter drives and signature-gathering petitions to help their movement and they've launched a petition to help them fight the Facebook censorship.
They're still on Facebook -- they have a page, just not an ad. Now they're using the Facebook page to hit Facebook back with an anti-censorship campaign, complete with a "censored" label slapped across the little green leaf.
Still, many online news outlets and blogs have agreed to run the leaf ad. The Nation, The New Republic, Raw Story, Stop the Drug War and AmericaBlog are a few the HuffPo reports as still showing the movement's logo.
