With the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, Facebook is also one of the major brands that are shutting down its offices. They have asked their staff to work from home amid this outbreak. This means that a lot of the contract workers who were not able to work out of the office have simply stopped working, which has reduced the capacity of Facebook in several areas.
The social media giant uses contractors for moderating the content and Facebook already warned earlier that this might lead to delays and errors since the company has to rely on automated systems to remove the post that violates its policies. These contractors also conduct ad reviews, which would mean delays in ad approvals and there might be cases where these ads will get rejected since automated systems are not always reliable.
Facebook’s Statement:
“We use a combination of people and technology to review ads on Facebook and Instagram, and our automated systems already play a big role in that process. Now with a reduced and remote workforce, we’re relying on automated technology even more.”
Facebook believes this would result in:
- Ad reviews will get delayed
- Delays in commerce listings
- There might be ads that will get approved incorrectly.
- Appeals might get delayed.
- Facebook’s in-stream ads will have limited availability.
This would be bad since advertisers will start looking at alternate ways to reach their potential customers to keep their revenues flowing.
If advertisers are looking to overcome this scenario, Rob Leathern, Facebook Trust and Integrity Team Leader, advises that they could think about extending the delivery period of the ads that perform the best. This would serve them better instead of creating new ads.
Facebook also mentioned there might be delays in approvals for monetized content:
“All monetized content goes through brand safety reviews. This includes Instant Articles and videos with in-stream ads. Since our ability to review new content is now limited, we won’t be able to approve all content for monetization. We’re working on how to support partners at this time.“
Facebook Bans Ads that Seek to Capitalize on COVID-19 Fears
Facebook announced last month that they’ll be banning the ads that capitalize around COVID-19 fears. This was followed by bans on ads that had commercial listings of face masks etc. Facebook is now extending the ban on the same thing. This is another step from Facebook towards the fight against COVID-19 pandemic to keep their uses protected.
