Five dozen corporations specializing in ladies’s well being services and products say Facebook has continuously rejected their advertisements over objections they include “adult content,” in line with a report the Center for Intimacy Justice printed this week. Facebook’s promoting insurance policies prohibit reproductive well being services or products that target sexual pleasure, however anecdotes from the businesses the Center for Intimacy Justice both interviewed or surveyed paint the image of a platform that enforces these tips in a approach that’s seemingly arbitrary and sexist.

The 60 corporations that took half within the report have all had ads rejected by Facebook at one level or one other. About half mentioned they’ve additionally had their accounts suspended by the social media big. One such firm is Joylux. It provides vFit Gold, a product ladies can use to strengthen their pelvic ground. “Because of the nature of our product, the look of it,” Joylux CEO Colette Courtion told The New York Times Facebook and different corporations imagine it’s “pornographic” in nature.

Since 2017, Joylux claims Facebook has shut down its promoting account twice. It says the corporate by no means offered a motive for these actions. It additionally claims Facebook has mechanically denied advertisements that embody “vagina.” That’s one thing Meta, Facebook’s mum or dad firm, disputes. A spokesperson for the corporate instructed Engadget it doesn’t implement a blanket ban on key phrases like “vagina” and “menopause.” Instead, it says it considers “how each ad is positioned.”

With assist from an company specializing in interesting advert rejections, Joylux has managed to get its advertisements up on Facebook lately. However, the corporate has needed to change its copy to the purpose the place these ads aren’t useful to customers. “We can’t show what the product looks like and we can’t say what it does,” Joylux instructed The New York Times.

A spokesperson for Meta instructed Engadget its enforcement isn’t good and that typically it makes errors. The firm additionally famous it has its present coverage in place partially as a result of it strives to bear in mind what individuals from completely different nations and cultures will take away from advertisements that promote grownup merchandise.

“We welcome ads for sexual wellness products but we prohibit nudity and have specific rules about how these products can be marketed on our platform,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We have provided detail to advertisers about what kinds of products and descriptions we allow in ads.”

What makes Facebook’s actions in these situations irritating for the 60 corporations that took half within the report is that they imagine Meta hasn’t utilized the identical requirements to advertisements concentrating on males. “Right now, it’s arbitrary where they’ll say a product is or isn’t allowed in a way that we think has really sexist undertones and a lack of understanding about health,” Jackie Rotman, the founding father of the Center for Intimacy Justice, instructed The Times.

To that time, the group discovered an advert selling an erectile dysfunction capsule that promised a “wet hot American summer.” Another, selling a lubricant, mentioned the lotion was “made just for men’s alone time.”