Transport for London (TfL) has refused a controversial out-of-home campaign by social networking site Muzz.com that claims ‘social media is killing Muslims.’
Due to run across London’s bus and tube network, the Muslim dating site saw its campaign refused after TfL expressed concerns that the assets could be vandalised as they might cause ‘widespread or serious offence to reasonable members of the public’.
Muzz.com claims that the campaign is the results of a survey carried out on its members, in which 89% of respondents believed that Muslims were being victimised on social media, with 84% adding that they had seen Islamophobic content.
Responding to the rejection, a Muzz.com spokesperson said: “TfL have rejected a number of ads we’ve tried to run based on this data.
“They said our ads will ’cause widespread or serious offence to reasonable members of the public. We were trying to highlight how Muslims feel excluded online and instead of allowing us to do so, they have censored us.”
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“It’s clear something needs to change. We’ve built Muzz Social, a social network made for Muslims. Muzz Social offers Muslims all around the world a safe space to connect, make friends and be part of an online Muslim community on a platform that represents Muslims values.”
The site also revealed that close to three-quarters of all respondents said that they felt they could not freely express their religious views online, with as many as 96% of Muslims adding that they had been ‘shadowbanned’ at some point (when posts and comments are made invisible without notice.)
A TfL spokesperson told the MailOnline: “We are committed to providing a safe network for all our customers. Having assessed if the proposed advert is in line with our advertising policy, we met with Muzz to make clear that whilst we are supportive of their campaign’s message, we are concerned that the ambiguity of the chosen strapline and that it could be subject to vandalism and/or defacement with offensive language.
“We offered to work with them to agree an alternative version of their campaign which can run on our network that works for Muzz, TfL and our customers.”
