Facebook partially lifts its advertisement restriction on face masks and will allow third-party firms, the company announced on Wednesday, to advertise clothes masks and other facial covers such as bandanas.
Due to national deficiencies and concern for medical workers and other frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company initially implemented a website-wide ad ban on all types of face masks, including medical and respiratory masks.
The prohibition was intended to avoid fraud, deceptive commercialisation and other abusses because Facebook couldn't fairly veto any ads that promoted masks that began in early March to flood online markets.
The increase in demand for cleaning supplies, face masks and other home goods generated a single problem for online advertising and e-commerce firms as the spread of the latest virus started spreading across the US earlier this year.
Merchants were found to have been price hugging, fabricated health claims, or failure of delivery, leading to a range of prohibitions and other measures to reduce exploitation by Amazon, Facebook , Google and other companies.
In April, American Centers for Disease Control changed their advice on the face mask — people are now advised to wear masks indoors and in areas where isolation from society is difficult, such as supermarkets. In consequence, Facebook lifts the interdiction, making finding and buying cloth masks easier for people.
For medical and respiratory masks, such as the 3M-made N95 mask, the ban is effective. Just yesterday, 3 M sued Amazon Marketplace seller for selling fake N95 masks at high prices, which showed the continuing problems with the sales of medical masks, currently under close control by the Federal Emergency Management Board.
"Many health officials now advise users of non-medical mask and masks for activities such as taking public transportation or visiting a store are required in some places. We have seen people and companies of every size working to meet this need," says Facebook's Product Management Director.
It says businesses or independent merchants must accumulate, for market masks, at least four months of ad-hoc on FB. Leathern explains that sellers are also restricted to the only non-health masks being sold in the country "where we saw large per cent of policy-violating ads promotting medical supplies during the temporary ban."
In addition , the Organization continues its prohibition of any medical claims advertisement or any health product or any associated document COVID-19. That means mainly handmade cloth masks and other forms of facial coverings made from fabrics or reusable material are products that can be advertised.
