Changes to publishing of social media hourlies
PPH. You have just sent a notification to freelancers a few moments ago.
You initially write that the policy changes regarding hourlies offering likes on Facebook and Instagram, and that they are to come into effect on 7 October.
But you then go on to say that logos pertaining to Facebook and Instagram need to be removed.
in regards to these first two points I don't have much objection.
However, the next part is a different matter, which reads-
start quote
Please make sure that you remove:
any and all Facebook/Instagram logos,
links,
or mentions of Facebook and Instagram
from your Hourlies’ titles and descriptions before the above date.
end quote.
In short, I am a FACEBOOK marketing expert. Are you honestly telling me, that whatever advice you have been given is that the word FACEBOOK cannot be used as a listing, headline or description? Because I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in all my life. There is simply no precedent in law anywhere in the world that prevents a word from being simply used.
How do you suggest that I convey to visitors of my profile or those reading my hourlies that I am a FACEBOOK marketing expert, that I offer FACEBOOK marketing hourlies or FACEBOOK marketing training hourlies or similar if I am unable to use the word FACEBOOK?!?!
Are buyers going to be prohibited in asking for assistance to market on Facebook? Surely that would be ridiculous would it not? Well, so is what you're trying to do.
in closing, please note that I am a top Cert, usually ranked in the top 100 of all freelancers. The vast majority of the work I undertake involves FACEBOOK so you can appreciate why such a constraint has caught my attention.
if I have misunderstood the changes by all means correct me, but if I have understood your proposed changes correctly, then there needs to be a dialogue, most urgently.
i can't stress this enough, that if Facebook are requiring changes to be made, then PPH has a responsibility to only agree to that which is fair and right and not be bullied. Facebook has other overbearing terms of use that other social media platforms such as Twitter completely disagree with, such as the registering of and use of domain names that include the word Twitter. They don't mind, but Facebook do.
there needs to be a discussion most urgently about this, and a clear explanation as to what has caused this proposed change in policy.
i await your response.
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Official comment
Comment actions -
Hi OP,
Curious as to whether you got a sensible answer. I had one of my hourlies unpublished that I have been successfully selling for years all because I offered to create posts and schedule posts for Twitter, Facebook, etc.
So clearly I was being punished for using the word Facebook and not because I was offering any unethical services such as selling likes. It's absolutely ridiculous this situation that we find ourselves in.
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Update -
So far, as at 2200hrs Mon 3 Oct, I have had a pretty standard response from support that suggested Facebook had been in touch with PPH about click farms/fake likes.
quite how that has evolved into the action PPH is taking I don't know yet.
I wasn't happy with the response, support have now escalated it to next level.
by the way, since I posted this, I found Facebook's own branding guidelines which completely contradicts PPHs belief that you can't mention Facebook.
https://en.facebookbrand.com/guidelines/brand
i note the the other comments. Finding a work around or using misspellings in my humble opinion is not a viable solution. I believe that where you see things happening that you don't believe are right, that you should challenge what is being done.
This doesn't make any sense so it's worth bringing it to the attention of enough people so that it is re examined.
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For the attention of Kelly,
please note that PPH has sent me at least 4 or 5 notifications about hourlies so logic is there must be hundreds or thousands of other people in the same situation.
The intention of PPH is to delete these, and I assume any feedback or testimonials would also be lost, I suggest that PPH freezes it's intended course of action so that a review can take place and more importantly PPH communicates an update to its members so that they know what is happening.
by all means get rid of any hourlies where paid likes cost pennies as they're fake and that's what the issue is, but to suggest logos can't be used and Facebook can't be mentioned, that's where someone in PPH has too much authority to make such decisions when compared to their level of knowledge about the subject.
i look forward to hearing progress.
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I also contacted PPH about my issue and received a very standard response. Basically I had to remove all Facebook logos, icons and any mention of Facebook from my hourlies in order to get them republished. It's ludicrous. I'm not sure how to escalate my complaints though as when I've tried in the past I just seem to get another CS agent in a very long line of CS Afents that speak little English and don't actually understand what it is that I'm trying to clarify with them. Im a Cert 5 Virtual Assistant with a 98% feedback rating. When I contacted them recently to ask why I keep getting invites for logo design jobs when I've never offered this service, yet am not receiving invites for jobs which I am skilled in and offer, I got the basic copy and paste response with something along the lines of "if you improve your seller rating and cert level through working regularly on the site then your chances of being invited to more jobs will increase". After speaking to 4 different CS Agents, none of whom understood what I was asking, I finally got to the point where I just gave up. I do fear that this Social Media debacle will just go the same way.
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It's absolutely ridiculous!
I posted the job asking for Facebook advert banner to be created and it was deleted. The reason - it is not allowed to use Facebook banner or images or ask for likes or followers..? I think instead of reading to see what the job is about they just delete them the moment word Facebook is used, simply lazy approach
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Angela, thanks for your contribution. A picture is starting to form as a result.
So, fake likes from click farms are bad. I think everyone will agreè, pushing against an open door on that one. Typically, we're talking about thousands of likes for tens of dollars, which just isn't possible through legitimate means.
i say legitimate means because of course as anyone in the know would be aware, when you run Facebook paid ads, one of the options to optimise the results is page likes. The difference however, is that when you take into account the time involved, and the ad spend you'd have to be looking at US$100 minimum as a starting price. Thus offering page likes as a service is not in itself the issue, it's the use of fake profiles that is the issue, though when it comes to moderation I doubt the ninjas are going to be knowledgeable enough to be able to tell the difference.
how this then manifests itself into 'not allowed to use the word Facebook itself' quite frankly is beyond me, is completely over the top, and makes no sense.
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Reply just received a short moment ago -
My name is Costa and I am the senior advisor who will assist you.
I am very sorry for the how the situation has turned out but we received a cease and desist from Facebook just over a week ago. We're still discussing this issue with them to sort out some details but it appears that the only services we're going to prohibit are the ones pertaining to "likes". Facebook account management will still be a service our sellers can provide, and you can mention facebook in your hourlie as long as it's not associated with providing "likes", so pretty much exactly what you said in your previous email is correct.
Last week we asked our users not to use the logo or the word facebook at all until this was all sorted out but now we appear to be finding a way accommodate everyone's needs.
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UPDATE: So based on the official reply form Costa below and the fact that other sellers are still using the word 'Facebook' on their hourlies I assumed all was back to normal and we could use the word again. However, I've just updated my social media management hourlie to include the word 'Facebook', nothing at all related to adding likes and it immediately was unpublished because it didn't pass moderation! The email that I received said that PPH can't allow any services that offer the selling of likes! SO CLEARLY THIS RIDICULOUS DEBACLE CONTINUES!!!!! AAARGH......
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However what is somewhat frustrating is that for actual social media marketers, paying for likes doesn't have to be a bad thing. There is such a campaign that exists called a 'likes campaign'. A totally legitimate way of acquiring REAL likes to a Facebook page. The debate continues...
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I'm an IP specialist lawyer based in the City of London. I too cannot understand why there are restrictions on this site with respect to using the words Facebook or Twitter. They have outlines on the free and unhindered use of their logos within the Terms and Conditions. However, you can use a name that is deemed to have entered every day use and/or a specific name that relates to the work on a specific trade term.
So you can advertise yourself as a "Facebook" or "Twitter" trainers, specialist etc, just as you can advertise yourself as a "Hoover" engineer, or LCD Repair specialist.
Although you are using Trademarked names, those very names have entered into everyday use. After all, you wouldn't "search engine" something on the internet, you would generally say you would "Google" it.
Sadly, if PPH won't budge, you may as well follow the advice already given by others, Facebook cannot prevent anyone from saying they are Social Media trainers for platform such as "FB" "Face Book" , or "Instagrm" or "Insgrm"
That said, Facebook themselves do allow use of their name and logo per the rules here: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads
Hopefully sensible thinking will return.
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Hi,
I've posted an hourly which offers the the job to extract user's data from a certain Facebook page and then I've featured it .. and I have noticed one day later that PPH has paused it since im using the Facebook name .. I'd like to know why ? ... I'd say that the job im offering is legal ..
Tnx
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