Since 2018, Generation Women Australia has been running monthly gatherings of women from all walks of life sharing their personal stories of triumph and overcoming adversity.
Its co-founders, Brooke Farmer and Donna Logue, aim to unite women through the power of storytelling, hosting events that bring women from their 20s to 70s together to empower one another through connection and friendship. Since Farmer’s departure in 2023, Logue has continued to lead the organisation and its mission to unite women through storytelling.
For seven years, it has promoted their events on Facebook and other social media platforms, but recently, their ads were blocked by Meta’s automated review system.
In a recent social media post, the organisation explained that paid ads for their upcoming shows in March were being blocked until a few key words were removed, including: ‘Feminist,’ ‘Queer,’ and ‘Activist.’
“At Generation Women Australia, we bring women of all ages together to share their real, raw and powerful stories, live on stage every month in Sydney and Melbourne,” the post read. “We rely on social media ads to reach new audiences, but recently, our ads kept getting rejected. The only way we could get them approved? Removing words like ‘feminist,’ ‘queer,’ and ‘activist.’”
Women’s Agenda has seen screenshots shared by Generation Women Australia’s CEO Donna Logue that reveal the notice she received from Meta’s automated review system regarding the ads being rejected.
“Your ad was rejected because it doesn’t comply with our Ads About Social Issues, Elections or Politics policy,” the notice read. “This means that your ad isn’t running and will not be delivered to your audience.”
“We know this may impact your current business objectives. If you believe it was incorrectly rejected, you can request another review.”
According to Generation Women Australia, the organisation had to remove the performer’s bios from the ads too – “just to get things running and approved.”
Another rejection notice from Meta, cited by Women’s Agenda, explained; “Your ad may have been rejected because it mentions politics or is about sensitive social issues that could influence public opinion, how people vote and may affect the outcome of an election or pending legislation. Our policy for running ads about social issues, elections or politics requires you to become authorised first by confirming your identity and creating a disclaimer that lists who is paying for the ads.”
The incident was reported in this week’s Media Watch. The ABC program received a statement from a Meta spokesperson explaining the company had introduced new measures to prevent scams, including “financial advertiser verification, the expansion of our facial recognition technology and the expansion of our partnership with the Australian financial crimes exchange.”
“The safety of our users is of utmost importance,” the statement addressed to ABC’s Media Watch stated. “We will continue to invest in new ways to stop scammers.”
However, the spokesperson did not directly comment on its rejection of Generation Women Australia’s paid ads. The story was included in a segment about Meta’s fake ads where scammers have been luring consumers on Facebook and Instagram into fake investment schemes.
Generation Women Australia CEO Donna Logue told ABC, “We rely on these ads to reach new audiences and keep our doors open. So what’s happening with Meta is genuinely threatening to organisations like ours.”
Speaking to Women’s Agenda this morning, Logue said the ads were flagged for using words like “feminist,” “queer,” and “activist” — words that simply reflect the organisation’s values and central mission.
“Honestly, it’s disappointing but not surprising,” Logue said. “Meta’s AI moderation systems seem to disproportionately flag content that centres marginalised voices and social justice. Meanwhile, hate speech and scam ads continue to run rampant on the platform. It shows just how flawed these systems are. Words that are empowering and inclusive in our space are being treated as harmful or political.”
As a small grassroots organisation, Logue said that her organisation’s resources are already stretched thin, but her team has been rewriting event materials, tweak messaging, and finding ways to get the ads running again.
“We’ll continue requesting reviews of our blocked ads and sharing updates with Media Watch if this continues, because the truth is: if we can’t reach our audience, there’s a real risk we won’t be able to keep our doors open,” she said.
Logue hopes that the community can rally together and speak up if similar incidents have happened to their organisation or business.
“If enough people come forward, we hope there’s a chance things could change,” she said. “We’ll keep raising awareness and using our platform to challenge the biases baked into systems — especially AI. We’re committed to telling bold, brilliant stories that reflect the full spectrum of women’s experiences — no algorithm is going to stop that and we hope our community will get behind us.”
Earlier this month, UK femtech groups accused Meta of “systemic bias and discrimination” against women’s health content after posts and ads relating to menopause, endometriosis and infertility were being repeatedly blocked.
According to some companies, Meta has offered “vague and inconsistent” reasons for the rejections. One company that sells lubricants for women grappling with painful sex had its educational posts on endometriosis, postnatal recovery and vaginal health removed from LinkedIn for promoting “illegal products and services”.
A LinkedIn spokesperson responded: “Educational or awareness-related content on health topics is allowed on LinkedIn, as long as it does not promote specific products or services. If an author believes their content has been removed in error, they have the option to appeal and we’ll take a second look.”
CensHERship, a UK-based anti-censorship campaign group, issued a statement saying, “We have evidence [of] multiple cases where medically accurate, expert-led content has been blocked or labelled as ‘adult content’ or ‘political.’”
“We can’t improve women’s health if we can’t talk about our bodies using anatomically-correct language.”
Last year, members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Australia accused Meta of rejecting paid advertisements related to transgender rights and pride events.
Many argued that the company’s removal of prohibitions against slurs targeting protected groups (including transgender people) will normalise anti-LGBTIQ+ rhetoric.
“These actions have sparked fears that the company is actively suppressing visibility for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary communities,” Australian LGBTQI lifestyle magazine Fuse explained. “While Meta claims these changes reflect ‘mainstream discourse,’ LGBTIQ+ organisations warn they embolden hate speech globally, including here in Australia.”
The magazine urged community members to explore alternative platforms to promote LGBTIQ+ and pride events, including Bluesky, for its safe online space free from discrimination.
Logue encouraged supporters of Generation Women Australia to sign up to the organisation’s mailing list. “It’s the one way we can stay in touch that Meta can’t block,” she said.