I write and post blog articles on Facebook each week for a client. Often, I will “Boost” the post in the hopes of reaching more people. All of the articles are on the Florida Everglades and range from invasive plants and species to the fragile water system. The goal through the articles is to bring awareness to as many as possible on the plight of the Everglades and how over time and a lot of bad decisions, we are in the position we are.

This week’s post titled “Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP)” discussed the long-term solutions to enhance the water supplies by reconnecting coastal and interior ecosystems. To me, it seemed like a good topic to attempt to reach more people.

Well, much to my surprise, within minutes of boosting the post, Facebook shot me the following message:

“Not Authorized for Ads with Political Content

Your ad was not approved because your Page has not been authorized to run ads with political content.

What to do: Complete the authorization process.

You can check the status of your review in your Support Inbox.”

Dumfounded, as for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was “political” about discussing the critical water situation in the Everglades, I appealed their decision. I explained that this was an article on the Everglades and the fragile water system and what steps were being taken to repair earlier mistakes. Several minutes later, I received this message:

“Your promotion to get more website visitors wasn’t approved.

It didn’t meet this Facebook Advertising Policy: Your ad wasn’t approved because it doesn’t follow our Advertising Policies. We reserve the right to reject any ad that doesn’t follow our policies.”

Since I have no intention of completing their authorization for this client, my curiosity was sparked enough to find out what Facebook now considers “political.” As you can see, basically any topic other than how the weather is today:

“This is an initial list of top-level issues that will be considered to require advertiser authorization and labeling for ads targeting the US. We expect this list may evolve over time.

abortion, budget, civil rights, crime, economy, education, energy, environment, foreign policy, government reform, guns, health, immigration, infrastructure, military, poverty, social security, taxes, terrorism, values”

There was my answer in black and white, “environment.” Not only is the environment considered political, it’s considered “top-level,” whatever that means. Wow, if we can’t freely talk about the environment on social media, then how are we supposed to come together to fix the problems we have caused.

Facebook brought their problems on themselves. During the 2016 campaign, they couldn’t collect money fast enough from posts that were being boosted. As it turns out, perhaps they should have been paying closer attention to who was increasing their coffers. With their feet now held to the fire, like most when caught, they have swung too far the other way. Hopefully, over time, the pendulum will swing somewhere close to the middle.

As far as this client goes, in the end, Facebook loses. As I said earlier, I have no intention of completing their authorization process to boost this client’s posts.

Are you having problems getting your posts boosted on Facebook?

Let’s chat and see what changes you can make to your posts, or if it’s worth it, to go through the authorization process.