While talks about Canada becoming the 51st state have cooled down, one local businessman discovered something on Facebook that he isn’t too happy about.

We heard from Nathan, who kept his last name anonymous for security reasons, about something he encountered when creating an ad for his business through Facebook’s ad manager.

“I wanted to start running ads to help promote the business,” he told Daily Hive.

After looking into the cost, audience size and potential reach to see if it would fit his company, he came across what he calls an “unsettling discovery.”

You can select different locations through the Facebook ad campaign manager. After following some steps, he noticed that the ad he was establishing was set to run across Canada.

“Which doesn’t make sense since I’m located and service the Lower Mainland,” he said.

As you can see in the image, other locations, like cities and neighbourhoods, are listed as such. But it seems Facebook’s ad campaign manager doesn’t recognize B.C. as a province. While this could easily be a backend issue unrelated to political tensions, Nathan doesn’t think it matters.

“Backend issue or not, it’s not a good look for Facebook ,” he said, given the ongoing political tension between the two countries. He added that he probably wouldn’t have even noticed the state designation if it wasn’t for all the political tensions.

Nathan feels this is “highly unacceptable” regardless of the reason.

Daily Hive contacted Meta yesterday about the reasoning behind listing British Columbia as a state but has not heard back.

He referenced the outcry Google received when Canadian provincial parks were listed with state park labels . Amazon Canada also received some flak for selling 51st state merch.

We will update this story once Facebook or Meta gets back to us.