Thaindian News

August 25, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): The immensely popular social networking site Facebook is a virtual hub of information. From the posting to the messages displayed on the walls and the advertisements on it, political leanings as well as activities related to politics are clearly visible to one and all.

It came as no surprise, therefore, when a group calling themselves, ‘Just Say Now’ posted an image of the Marijuana leaf on the Facebook seeking legalization of the pot in California. The ad was viewed by more than 500 million Internet users with reactions from almost 38 million people while more than 6,000 users visited the profile of the group.

Adam Noyes, the spokesperson for the Facebook reportedly told Huffington Post that the group was informed of Facebook’s decision to not retain the image as it would have to classified under the category of smoking products which is unacceptable as per the policy of the Facebook.

The group is not deterred by the censorship imposed by Facebook either. They are in the process of visiting various college campuses together with signature collecting petitions in order to further their cause. They have also decided to fight the Facebook in a novel way.

The group’s page on Facebook now features a prominent anti censorship campaign with the very same image displayed along with ‘censored’ written all across the green leaf.

Annie Ta of Facebook also told the reporters that it was fine with group ads. But the social networking site had a strict policy which disallows drugs like pot, drug related paraphernalia or images any kind of smoking products to feature in their ads. She states that the group would be welcome to advertise on Facebook provided they use a different image.