Abolish the Assembly leader has Covid-19 ads taken down by Facebook

The Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party have had ads taken down by Facebook because they violated the site’s advertising policies.

The two ads which included a picture of Wales’ Health Minister Vaughan Gething suggested that people in Wales would have to “carry papers” when the country came out of the firebreak lockdown.

The ads which ran between the 5th and 12th of November warned against the “dystopian” post-lockdown policies of the Welsh Government which “could be mistaken for Soviet era East Germany”.

The picture of Vaughan Gethin in front of a chip shop included a badge saying ‘No ID, no sale’.

Mark Drakeford is also seen peering through the chip shop door window, dressed as Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films.

The ad was promoted from the Facebook page of Richard Suchorzewski, the leader of the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party. Facebook’s stats show one ad received 6-7,000 views before being removed and the other 1-2,000.

Facebook’s list of prohibited content includes a ban on “sensational content” and “misinformation”.

Fundraising

Richard Suchorzewski’s page spent a total of £3,538 on Facebook ads between 15 Oct 2018 and 16 Nov 2020, according to Facebook.

But the Abolish the Assembly’s main Facebook page showed that only £200 had been spent on Facebook ads between 15 Oct 2018 and 15 Nov 2020.

In September Abolish the Assembly launched a fundraising drive to “fund leaflets and other campaign materials to help our activists campaign”.

However, the Just Giving page showed that so far only £355 had been raised, with 28 donors in total.