Facebook Co-Founder Donates To Pot Legalization While Facebook Bans Pro-Pot Ads

About a month and a half ago, Facebook (that little website that inspired a recent movie and is currently making an announcement that half of the internet is buzzing about) inspired some controversy by banning a number of pro-Proposition 19 ads from their site purportedly for committing the unthinkable sin of featuring cartoon marijuana leaves. However, while the giant behemoth organization that is Facebook is anti-legalization, it looks like one of their founders isn’t, as Dustin Moskovitz has donated $50,000 to the cause.

Ryan Grim described the irony on the Huffington Post thusly:

“The contribution from Moskovitz, who listed his occupation simply as ‘co-founder,’ highlights the bizarre position Facebook has put itself in by blocking speech on behalf of a political position backed by many of its users and at least one of its founders. Moskovitz is still a part owner of Facebook but has largely ceded operation authority. The donation was first reported by the East Bay Express.

‘We wouldn’t comment on what an employee of Facebook — past or present — does with his or her own checkbook,’ said Adam Noyes, a Facebook spokesman, adding that the company has only banned pot ads that have an image of a pot leaf. (Other Facebook users, such as the Libertarian Party, have been told that any pro-legalization ads run counter to the company’s policies.)”

So, a guy who helped create a website that changed the entire world can support a political cause but that same website thinks tiny ads supporting the same cause will be detrimental to their users. As I wrote in my last post on the censorship: “Facebook does reserve the right to ban content from their site and they have in the past. Still, it’s hard to imagine that a cartoon pot leaf connected to a legitimate political movement belongs in the same category as a ‘Kill Obama’ poll.”