Facebook changes policy for ads on controversial pages

Facebook announced that it plans to introduce a new system next week that will remove ads from appearing on a wider range of Pages and Groups that some users may find offensive.

The Menlo Park giant announced the change after a campaign earlier this year by activists calling on Facebook and its advertisers to pull their ads from running alongside controversial pages, especially those with graphic language and images of rape, abuse and other violence against women.

Facebook said it will implement a new review process on Monday that will expand the number of Pages and Groups that will be restricted from showing ads. To start, Facebook will manually find and add those pages to its list, but later on it will also create an automated way that will detect and prevent ads from appearing on those pages.

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“Our goal is to both preserve the freedoms of sharing on Facebook but also protect people and brands from certain types of content,” Facebook said in a blog announcing the change.

Facebook said the new system will ensure advertisers don’t appear alongside content that might be inappropriate for their brands.

“Like any digital platform, we’re not going to be perfect but we will be much better,” the company said. “We’ll continue to work aggressively on this issue with advertisers.”

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