Facebook has had a love-hate relationship with marijuana since the dawning of legalization. The company doesn’t seem to have any issues with allowing pot-related publications to have a presence, nor does it try and silence much of the chatter calling for the legalization of the plant, yet companies dealing in marijuana products are not allowed to use the social media platform for promotion. But that could soon change, according to a report from the Telegraph.
It seems Facebook officials are looking to amend the policy to some degree regarding marijuana marketing.
“Our policies at the moment do not allow for the sale of marijuana on the platform,” a company associate told the news source. “We want to consider whether we can loosen this restriction, especially in relation to medical marijuana, legal marijuana and brick and mortar stores.”
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But Facebook has to deal with some logistics issues before taking such a leap. It has to figure out a way to distinguish between legal and illegal activity, as well as prevent pot promotions from being revealed to users under the age of 21. It also needs to make sure that allowing marijuana ad placement doesn’t cause problems with cultures all over the planet. In short, the company has the challenge of figuring out how to unleash marijuana activity in a manner that appeases the masses.
“Since marijuana faces different legal and social restrictions across the globe, this may be operationally challenging for us,” a company associate said.
Facebook is sort of taking a baby step approach to marijuana. Last year, the company was called out for disregarding cannabis-related firms in its searches, but that was later sorted out after Canada legalized nationwide. Now, it is relatively easy to search for all of your favorite pot publications, including The Fresh Toast. (Truth be told, it was never complicated to find us in the first place.)
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The latest news, however, suggests that the company is moving toward a time when it, too, can capitalize on the legal marijuana movement. Although a change in policy would not allow weed to be sold on the social media platform’s infamous Marketplace, it would give cannabis companies permission to start spending ad dollars. That could generate some serious revenue for the company.
Until then, it’s business as usual.
It’s funny how the same Facebook moderators responsible for flagging questionable content on the platform, including marijuana-related posts, are getting high on the job, according to a recent report from The Verge. These workers are using marijuana to “numb the pain,” because apparently sorting through racist and sexually-charged content is giving them “PTSD-like symptoms.” So the next time your cannabis organization gets banned from Facebook for posting pot-related anything, just know that the person who pulled the plug was probably stoned when they did it.
