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Facebook rejected ad for indie title Road 96 over political concerns

Facebook rejected ad for indie title Road 96 over political concerns

Social media giant Facebook has taken issue with adverts for upcoming indie title Road 96.

Speaking to Axios, developer Yoan Fanise said that ads for the game were rejected due restrictions placed on marketing related to political and social issues, as well as elections.

Road 96 has players trying to flee the fictional country of Petria; the advert in question featured phrases including "escape from a country in turmoil" and "reach the border."

In an email, Facebook said that Fanise's advert might have been rejected due to "images, statements or slogans about social issues, such as the economy, environmental policy, or civil and social rights." He was apparently told he could edit the ad and remove the offending content or seek authorisation to run political adverts.

"I thought about [the movie] Minority Report," Fanise said.

"This is a robot checking in advance what you're going to do and decide for you, no you're not going to do that."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.