Facebook is now again in a controversy. Popular mobile messaging company Hike claimed that Facebook is disabling an option in its advertisement to block users from visiting its website. It is worth noting that Hike is a competitors to Facebook owned Whatsapp messenger.
Hike spokesperson told PTI, “Advertisers have, among other options, the option to ‘Send people to your website’. A few weeks back we were suddenly blocked from using this option, while we were able to use other non-action led options.”
Also Read: Hike Messenger brings free voice calling with ‘Hike Calls’
Initially Hike team thought that the issue could be a technical and asked Facebook to help on this. But they got surprising reply confirming that they cannot run this type of ads.
“There are specific products and services that cannot be advertised on Facebook – looks like Hike is one of these. Unfortunately, you will not be able to run these ads. Facebook said,” the reads the response Hike received from Facebook.
Hike is the second largest messaging app in India with 70 million users. The app was launched in December 2012 and saw good growth in India. It also got popularity for its stickers which later became irritating for users.
It is worth to note that Facebook and Whatsapp did this kind of things several times in past. Last month, WhatsApp blocked telegram links by showing it as text only. Facebook also deleted millions of post containing links to Tsu, a rival social network. Not just this, it also blocked users from using Tsu.co in post’s text and visiting it From Facebook warned users that the website could harm.
