Wow, this blew up and imploded and tried to disappear quickly and totally did not disappear at all.
Not sure what happened, but — a TEEN VOGUE piece that breathlessly touted all the wonderful things FACEBOOK is doing to ensure the integrity of our 2020 elections was published, and not identified as sponsored editorial content. Then, a label was added. And finally, the piece was taken down altogether.
Now, Facebook says it was *not* sponsored editorial content?
And Sheryl Sandberg Facebooked it.
Here's the story in 4 images.
Part 1:
Then, moments later, after being dragged by media-watchers on Twitter…
But not for long! Within less than one hour…
We hardly knew ye. But still! Sheryl Sandberg didn't get the memo, and promoted the piece on her Facebook page, as if it was editorial content that they totally didn't pay for at all or influence at all, nope.
Too much.
Here's what people were saying while the whole thing unfolded on Wednesday morning, on Twitter.
– Teen Vogue runs Facebook story people think is sponsored content
– Adds note saying its sponcon
– Then removes note
– FB denies to me that it's sponcon
– Teen Vogue tweets "literally idk," then deletes tweet
– Entire article suddenly disappears
– ????https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF— Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020
interesting pivot for Teen Vogue here to… Facebook PR? https://t.co/9piUkJOHYW
— Steven Perlberg (@perlberg) January 8, 2020
fwiw, FB disputes this. Says it's a "purely editorial" story, not sponcon https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF
— Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020
Some weird things going on with this Teen Vogue story I’m seeing lots of Facebook employees share today https://t.co/lveRoORpaa
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) January 8, 2020
Timeline for the vogue article:
Not labeled as spon on publish
Labeled as spon by 9:08
not labeled as spon at 9:53
taken down by 9:57— Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) January 8, 2020
Publishing this sort of uncritical corporate propaganda is especially noxious on a website like Teen Vogue.
The website's demographic doesn't remember in a world without Facebook.
To frame this as a fun guide to election integrity is shameful.https://t.co/fimjbUVDqg pic.twitter.com/kK4HVQSERM
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) January 8, 2020
Let's play a fun game of spot the difference between 20 minutes ago and now pic.twitter.com/bfbVTw6peQ
— nathan ma (@nthnashma) January 8, 2020
teen vogue just added a disclaimer to the post. it's literally a Facebook ad. https://t.co/7tLyXmP5gY
— dell cameron (@dellcam) January 8, 2020
Even sketchier, Teen Vogue's Facebook "article" is both unbylined and has been put in their "government" vertical, which when you click on it goes… nowhere? pic.twitter.com/ztAgfcRwOp
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) January 8, 2020
I'm not an ad guy, but to clarify this tweet, the disclaimer added by an editor referred to the post as "sponsored editorial content," implying facebook did not author the article itself, but, through some sales deal, paid to have a writer do it https://t.co/TolOafI3OE
— dell cameron (@dellcam) January 8, 2020