Facebook hasn’t instilled good will to anyone as of late. But their latest move, rejecting a GRIS ad for sexually sensitive content, is leaving people baffled.
Publisher Devolver Digital noted on Twitter yesterday that a launch trailer for the game was rejected by the social media site due to a sexually suggestive scene:
Facebook rejected a GRIS launch trailer ad for this ‘sexually suggestive’ scene so this year is going great so far. pic.twitter.com/frVaYOXIHe
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) January 7, 2019
Kotaku has images of what Facebook is saying is sexually suggestive. It’s a statue of a woman falling apart, with no sexually suggestive material at all.
In a statement to Kotaku, Devolver Digital were not happy about the rejected ad, flat out saying “this is stupid.”
“We appealed and they said the appeal was rejected based on the grounds that Facebook does not allow nudity,” the statement said.” First of all, she’s a statue and second, absolutely no nudity is shown in that photo, nor is this what any reasonable person would consider ‘sexualized content’.”
This isn’t the first time a game ad has been rejected due to what is being deemed as explicit content. An ad for Super Meat Boy Forever was rejected last month because it showed the protagonists’ rear end. Team Meat has since “fixed” the image in question:
Fixed it. This is much better. Facebook was right. pic.twitter.com/NZ9cynOYy0
— Team Meat (@SuperMeatBoy) December 21, 2018
This also comes at a time where Facebook is facing extreme blowback for a number of data and privacy scandals that have put new light on their business practices. Their stock has plunged 36 percent in the last few months, though recently user engagement has improved.
GRIS is a 2D puzzle platformer about a young girl who is lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience. As the game progresses, she is granted new abilities to better understand the reality around her. It’s garnered strong praise since release, averaging a 83 on Metacritic.
The full launch trailer for GRIS can be seen below. It’s out now for both the Nintendo Switch and PC.
