People talk about all sorts of topics, including dark and sarcastic things (and sometimes dark things in a sarcastic fashion) on Facebook. Ads appear during whatever post people are making, and that’s upsetting some of Facebook’s ad partners.
The charities Shelter and RSPB, Vodafone, Dove Cosmetics, and the audiobook site Audible have complained that their ads consistently appears with group pages about rape. It’s not the first time Facebook has been criticized for failing to remove graphic material quickly, despite making $1.33 billion in ads just the last quarter.
The RSPB contacted Facebook after its adverts appeared on a page called “Indian girls”, as did those from Audible. The charity in a statement said, “Unless they can assure us that they are working out a way to guarantee this kind of thing doesn’t continue, we will be forced to consider our advertising options.”
“If advertising on Facebook means your ad could appear on hundreds of rape pages, advertisers should consider that very carefully indeed,” said Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project.
Facebook claims that adverts on its site are targeted towards individual users, not towards pages. The social network says it looks to remove offensive material deemed to be “genuinely or directly harmful” as quick as it can.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
