The Centre for Intimacy Justice and Origin has issued a report on the difficulties faced by femtech startups such as censorship on social media platforms.
The report surveyed 60 companies that are focused on areas of female health and wellness such as menopause, pelvic pain, menstrual health and sexual wellness. The non-profit, pelvic floor start-up found that Facebook blocks or censors adverts around women’s health citing violation of ‘adult product’ policies.
It reported that 100 per cent of the women’s health startups surveyed over three years, had had adverts rejected on both Instagram and Facebook. Half of the companies surveyed had had their accounts suspended by Facebook. All of the companies were founded by women excluding one led by a nonbinary person.
It highlights the impact of such bans on women’s health conversations and communities in online spaces. Bots crawl through online content looking for words that they deem inappropriate before flagging the content. This can lead to bans, blocks and removal of posts. While brands can appeal, it is often a long and unsuccessful outcome. The report highlighted that some of the most flagged words included vagina or vaginal dryness.
Image rights: Stop Censorship of Women’s Health campaign/ Kegg_Tech
However, adverts for men’s sexual wellness brands were not as targeted and included sexual innuendos. The centre argues that this makes brand visibility for female founders difficult and makes it harder for brands to explain products to customers. As a result, women or healthcare providers may be unaware that these products exist.
Jackie Rotman, founder of Center for Intimacy Justice said: “We think this is a fixable problem. We want Facebook to make this a priority. The adult policy needs to be revamped entirely. It’s being applied in ways that are discriminatory and harmful to women and people of diverse genders and other underrepresented groups.”
Patty, I’m curious—any response from Meta here? https://t.co/pfuWwABgWM
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 9, 2022
This year for International Women’s Day, female founders were encouraged to discuss and use the hashtag #BreaktheBias. Over forty companies spread across the female health and wellness industry signed a petition organised by Kristina Cahojova, founder of kegg. tech. It is aimed at highlighting the censorship they have faced across Meta platforms, Tik Tok and Linkedin.
Companies were encouraged to send in their experiences of censorship and images of adverts they have had rejected by the platforms.
Image rights: Stop Censorship of Women’s Health campaign/ OhNutCo
Some of the companies on the list included The Honey Pot Company, Bloomlife Inc, Tempdrop, Oova, Matera Medical, Dame products, Kegelbell, Ohnut and Tash Doherty. The companies are focused on different areas of female health including endometriosis, pelvic pain, pregnancy, postpartum care, menstrual health, fertility and sexual health.
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