James Delahunty
29 Jun 2013 5:37
Facebook has changed its policies toward advertising practices after BSkyB and Marks & Spencer pulled ads from the social network.
M&S had become aware that a BSkyB ad - offering an M&S voucher - was being displayed on a Facebook page titled "cute and gay boys," which features photographs of teenage boys. In response, M&S asked BSkyB to remove the advert and it suspended some of its own Facebook ads.
Facebook has now announced that its advertising policies are changes so that ads will not be displayed on pages with controversial material, such as violence.
"We recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups. So we are taking action," the company said in a blog post.
Firms like BSkyB and M&S would feel that their ads appearing on pages with controversial material would do damage.
This is not the first time Facebook has run into problems like this. Only weeks ago, women's groups had led protests against Facebook due to alleged 'misogynist content', which led to some advertisers suspending campaigns.