A recent BBC report revealed Facebook’s plans to begin
censoring videos that depict ‘graphic violence’ or ‘unsavoury material’ that
appears on the social networking site.
Waseem Saddique asserts: “Whilst there are no immediate
plans for the widespread censorship of images and marketing material, there are
active petitions now appearing on various platforms calling for Facebook and
other social media sites to implement stricter censorship policies.”
What are the
implications for businesses?
Whilst there are currently no plans to censor adverts and
prevent the use of social media for marketing purposes, petitioners are pushing
hard for such restrictions to be imposed, according to the BBC report.
The decision to censor videos of an ‘unsavoury nature’ has
sparked debate as to whether material should be censored. Social media sites
are torn on the subject. On the one hand they don’t want to restrict ‘freedom’;
after all social media is open to everyone. However, social media platforms
also realise they have a duty to protect ‘vulnerable’ users of their services.
The question now is how far will the censorship of social
media sites go? For businesses, the impact of censoring marketing material
could prove devastating. By removing the freedom to post marketing material,
businesses stand to see customer reach reduced dramatically.
Petitioners in favour of widespread censorship want to
restrict the ability of businesses to broadly ‘spam’ social media users with
marketing material. At present this can only be restricted by users adjusting
their personal profile settings.
Waseem Saddique comments: “The issue of censoring material
that appears on social media is sensitive and challenging, as everyone has
different perceptions on what’s tasteful and distasteful.”
The BBC report alludes to a case of a business promoting
‘breast pumps’. The marketing campaign sparked complaints from some social
media users who described the pictures featured in the campaign as advocating
scenes of a ‘sexual’ nature in reference to an exposed breast.
To others the campaign was perfectly fine as breast feeding
is a natural scenario for mothers all over the world. This case alone
highlights the fine lines that determine what’s explicit and what isn't.
In the case of this particular company, they were asked to
remove the marketing campaign in the interests of appeasing those who
protested. The ramifications of this, should petitioners get their wish for
increased censorship, could be highly detrimental to a number of
companies.
In communist countries, such as China for instance, the
censorship of social media has already been taken to extreme lengths and the
worry for many social media sites and businesses across the globe is that
severe censorship policies could be implemented as law over the coming years.
The problem that Facebook faces in particular is satisfying
its users. In March 2013 Facebook released figures showing that 665 million
people accessed the site everyday throughout March. That’s a lot of people to
appease without trampling on freedom of speech and balancing that with audience
protection.
The ramifications for businesses, should censorship expand
beyond videos and into marketing material, will certainly change the face of
business marketing in the long term as it’s not just Facebook under pressure to
implement stricter censorship policies.
Waseem Saddique states: “We understand that Facebook is now
reviewing its censorship policy and other social media sites are set to follow
suit. It’s now a case of awaiting the outcome and seeing what measures are put
in place.”
Founded in 2007, Waseem Saddique Marketing has consistently
provided small to medium enterprises as well as larger corporate firms with a
range of digital marketing & online solutions.
