Spectator's satirical Joe Biden cover is 'restricted' by Facebook

Facebook last night appeared to restrict a political magazine from running a satirical front page about Joe Biden as an advert.

The Spectator was told its latest front cover – which depicts the US President mistakenly holding up five fingers, in the belief he is holding up six – would need to be specially authorised in order to appear on the platform.

The magazine’s editor Fraser Nelson suggested the problem stemmed from political bias in favour of Mr Biden, as satirical front pages about the likes of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson were waved through. He said: ‘We’ve appealed to Facebook – saying we’re a political mag, all of our covers are political. Appeal rejected. It seems satire directed at Biden is rejected by Facebook (or its bots) but when we mocked Trump, Boris, Truss etc that was all fine and fair comment. Funny old world.’

But Facebook appeared to relent, with a spokesman saying last night: ‘Anyone who wants to run an ad that’s about politics or elections has to be authorised. If The Spectator resubmit it from an authorised page admin, the ad will be approved.’