Wow, this blew up and imploded and tried to disappear quickly and totally did not disappear at all.

Not sure what happened, but -- a TEEN VOGUE piece that breathlessly touted all the wonderful things FACEBOOK is doing to ensure the integrity of our 2020 elections was published, and not identified as sponsored editorial content. Then, a label was added. And finally, the piece was taken down altogether.

Now, Facebook says it was *not* sponsored editorial content?

And Sheryl Sandberg Facebooked it.

Here's the story in 4 images.

Part 1:

Then, moments later, after being dragged by media-watchers on Twitter...

But not for long! Within less than one hour...

We hardly knew ye. But still! Sheryl Sandberg didn't get the memo, and promoted the piece on her Facebook page, as if it was editorial content that they totally didn't pay for at all or influence at all, nope.

Too much.

Here's what people were saying while the whole thing unfolded on Wednesday morning, on Twitter.

- Teen Vogue runs Facebook story people think is sponsored content- Adds note saying its sponcon- Then removes note- FB denies to me that it's sponcon- Teen Vogue tweets "literally idk," then deletes tweet- Entire article suddenly disappears- ????https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF

 Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020

interesting pivot for Teen Vogue here to… Facebook PR? https://t.co/9piUkJOHYW

 Steven Perlberg (@perlberg) January 8, 2020

fwiw, FB disputes this. Says it's a "purely editorial" story, not sponcon https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF

 Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020

Some weird things going on with this Teen Vogue story I’m seeing lots of Facebook employees share today https://t.co/lveRoORpaa

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/UXeOr_s2LA8/teenvogue-facebook-sponsored-c.html