US-Khmer Politician Promotes Her Campaign with Khmer Rouge Genocide Scenes

[CEOCambodiaNews]

A US politician of Cambodian descent is using the Khmer Rouge genocide to advertise her political campaign in the USA. Politics and Facebook rules aside, is it acceptable to use a genocide for self-promotion ?

GOP congressional candidate says Facebook 'rejected' ad depicting parents' survival of Cambodia genocide
A Republican congressional candidate has accused Facebook of not allowing her to promote her campaign video because it includes scenes from the Cambodian genocide – which her parents survived.

Elizabeth Heng’s campaign ad starts with graphic and stark images from the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s as she talks about her parents’ survival and her campaign mantra: “Great things can come from great adversity.”

Heng’s campaign said Facebook “revoked approval to advertise” the video last week. According to a screenshot posted to Twitter, Facebook said it was not approved because it does not adhere to its advertising policies.

“We don’t allow ads that contain shocking, disrespectful or sensational content, including ads that depict violence or threats of violence,” the message from Facebook read.

.@facebook rejected my video because it was “too shocking” for their platform, referring to the scenes of horrific events my parents survived in Cambodia. Facebook, do you think it’s right to censor history? #censorship
Full ad here: https://t.co/SY0w1o327m pic.twitter.com/etvlZYK22N
— Elizabeth Heng (@ElizabethHeng) August 4, 2018
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08 ... ocide.html

[John Bingham]

There is only a very short segment of that advertisement which has footage from Cambodia. Her story about her father saying not to kill him as he was getting married soon sounds dubious, the Khmer Rouge weren't known for their sentimentality. Anyway, the ad focuses more on modern-day poverty and inner-city decay in the US, maybe that's why it caused a fuss?

[paul2d]

Facebook has been censoring most conservative posters and viewpoints ever since they updated their algorithm a few months ago. If it continues with this policy the government is liable to declare them a utility which would curtail their censorship of conservatives. Imagine the electric company cutting a costomer off because of their political beliefs. Stay tuned for more on this. Fox news is like a dog with a bone on this issue and it won't die a quiet death.

[that genius]

“We don’t allow ads that contain shocking, disrespectful or sensational content, including ads that depict violence or threats of violence,” the message from Facebook read.

Yeah, right, schmuckerberg

Thousands of photos of violence on facebook. Why only ads?

[Anchor Moy]

Video opens with this photo among others.


And tbh, it does shock me that you can use these photos for advertising. But, I imagine she bought the right to use the photos, so they are a commodity like any other. There was a scandal though when it was revealed that photos of S21 victims were being sold online not so long ago. Don't remember how that finished, didn't they take them down ?

As for FB rules on what is shocking, they recently banned some classic paintings of Old Masters, from 17th century, because of nudity. It was advertising for a Flemish art exhibition in Belgium. It's hard to believe that the 21st century is so puritan.