A theatre in Barcelona has criticised Meta after it was unable to advertise a stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own on Facebook and Instagram because promotional material contained references to feminism and social issues.
According to The Guardian, Teatre Raval attempted to promote its new production through Meta’s platforms, but the advertising campaign was rejected by the company’s automated systems.
Feminism flagged as a ‘social issue’
When the theatre sought an explanation, Meta reportedly said references to “civil rights, feminism or social reform” can be classified by its automated system as “social issues” and may therefore be filtered.
According to The Guardian, Meta suggested removing certain “keywords” so that the advertisement would not appear to encourage activism.
The theatre publicly criticised the decision, describing it as an “injustice” and arguing that it interfered with its ability to promote a feminist theatrical production.
It also pointed out that cultural organisations are effectively required to use social media platforms to inform audiences about their activities.
Woolf’s work brought to the stage
The production is a monologue starring Clara Sanchis and is based on lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf in 1928 at Newnham and Girton Colleges at the University of Cambridge, which were among the few colleges admitting women at the time.
Those lectures were published the following year as the essay A Room of One’s Own.
In the work, Woolf examined the position of women in society, their access to education and the material conditions she believed were necessary for women to be able to produce literary work.
‘We don’t know if it was Woolf or feminism’
Speaking to Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Sanchis said it remained unclear whether the advertisement had been rejected because of Woolf’s name, the word “feminism”, or both.
She warned that automated restrictions of this kind risk contributing to the “erasure” of social achievements that took centuries to secure.
The controversy has renewed debate over how automated moderation and advertising systems used by major technology platforms distinguish between political or activist material and cultural or artistic content addressing social issues.
For theatres and other cultural organisations increasingly dependent on social platforms to reach audiences, the case also raises questions about how automated advertising policies can affect the promotion of works dealing with historically political or socially contested themes.
Source: The Guardian
