Representative image

A digital photo gallery containing, among other images, a picture of the England cricket team in a huddle, was reportedly blocked by Facebook for containing “overtly sexual” content.

According to a report on the BBC, the owner of the gallery, Mike Hall, insisted that none of the 400 images featured had any “risque” content, but were restricted by Facebook after he tried to use them as ads on the platform.

Among other images that were bizarrely restricted included a frame of a cow standing on a field, a ‘Disco’ neon sign, a Hong Kong timeline, a high-rise building, a set of tramlines in France, ripples on a pond, and a firework display. The reasons provided to ban the ad images ranged from “promoting weapons” to “overtly sexual” content.

Facebook’s advertisement policies restrict the promotion of ‘”adult” products and services’, a regulation that the England cricket team somehow found itself on the wrong side of. The situation escalated to the level that Hall was banned from putting up any ads from his account.

The ads were later reinstated, with Facebook apologising to the photographer, and admitting that the images were “restricted in error”.

The image of the England team in question was taken during the fourth Test against India at Southampton from 2018, famously remembered for being Alastair Cook’s final Test series. The image captures the team huddled up ahead of play, in a series that the Joe Root-led team won 4-1. The gallery also contains other images from the Test, including pictures from the crowd and a snap of the England slip cordon featuring Root, Cook, Ben Stokes and James Anderson.

Hall told BBC he will continue to “persevere” in his attempts to run advertisements on Facebook, but also spoke about the lack of consistency in who can reach out to communicate with the platform.

“When you’re running a small business, or any business where you’re trying to figure out what’s gone wrong,” Hall said. “You can’t have an arbitrary process with no-one to talk to. When I set up my account with Facebook I had to verify my business with them – but after that, it fell into an abyss.”

Facebook told the BBC that they are investigating the issue.