According to a Google blog post by David Graff, the search engine giant (along with Facebook) have decided to start banning bail bonds ads from their platforms. The blog posts states that they are removing bail ads in an effort to protect users from “deceptive or harmful products”.
“Today, we’re announcing a new policy to prohibit ads that promotee bail bond services from our platforms. Studies show that for-profit bail bond providers make most of their revenue from communities of color and low-income neighborhoods when they are at their most vulnerable, including through opaque financing offers that can keep people in debt for months or years.” – David Graff, Director of Global Product Policy at Google
Is the Ban on Bail Ads Warranted?
Here at Bad Boys Bail Bonds, we feel that this recent ban on bail bonds ads on the Facebook and Google advertising platforms is misguided and a gross overreaction. Not all bail bonds providers purposefully take advantage of any minority community. We also feel that this ban will not really affect bail reform efforts in California. Even the National Review published an article that stated that “refusing these ads is no way to help people or reform the system”.
The National Review article even goes as far as to question how bail bonds services could ever be considered harmful or predatory. They even directly refute the claims by Google that bail services are purposefully obscure and that they keep people in debt for years and years.
“If most arrestees who cannot post bail from their own resources are from low-income or minority communities, then that is the market bail bonds are destined to serve. As for the second, many bail transactions involve no borrowing — and it’s not as if this little market, dominated by mom-and-pops, lacks competition.” – Walton Olson – Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, and author at the National Review
Bad Boys Bail Bonds Agrees with the National Reveiw
Here at Bad Boys Bail Bonds, we definitely side with the position taken by the National Review. This ban by Google and Facebook will do nothing to help the bail industry in California. It will also do nothing to help facilitate logical and reasonable bail reform in the state. So, if you need bail bonds, then don’t worry about the Google and Facebook ad ban. Just contact the expert bondsmen here at Bad Boys Bail Bonds instead!
