Not even a cultural event dedicated to the memory of Antonio Gramsci has managed to slip through Meta's algorithms. This is what happened to the Gramsci House Museum , which saw its request for sponsorship on Facebook and Instagram for the initiative "The Voice Beyond Bars," scheduled for November 8th at 6:00 PM in the Aragonese Tower of Ghilarza, rejected.
The event, organized together with the cultural association Perda Sonadora and the Cabudanne de sos Poetas on the occasion of the centenary of Gramsci's arrest, includes a theatrical reading of the letters from prison entrusted to the actor Valentino Mannias .
The paid promotion was blocked by the ad's classification as "Politics or Social Issues ." According to Meta 's explanation to the organizers, the name of Gramsci, a prominent historical and political figure, had triggered the platform's filters, without the system distinguishing between the cultural and theatrical purposes of the initiative.
The case falls within the new European framework on transparency in political advertising, but it is necessary to distinguish between the two aspects. The EU regulation introduces transparency obligations and rules on the targeting of political ads . The suspension of political, electoral, and social advertising in the European Union is, however, a commercial choice made by Meta, which cited the difficulties of adapting to the new provisions. Therefore, there is no general European ban on advertising cultural initiatives that address historical or political issues .
However, the problem of automatic classifications remains. " Under these conditions, we will no longer be able to invest in promoting our cultural initiatives on social media ," observes the House Museum, which invites the public to support the event through likes, comments, and shares.
A situation that takes on a particular significance on the centenary of Gramsci's arrest, which occurred on November 8, 1926, at the hands of the fascist regime. At the time, the aim was to " prevent this brain from functioning ," as the prosecutor declared during the trial. Today, a hundred years later, his voice returns through letters from prison, but it encounters a new obstacle: that of an algorithm that risks confusing cultural dissemination with political advertising .