Facebook advertisers will be able to opt out of parts of the social networking website following the discovery that some campaigns were running close to content promoting the British National Party, the far-right political party.
Companies including Vodafone, Virgin Media and First Direct, the internet bank owned by HSBC, last week pulled Facebook campaigns after finding these were running next to a page for the BNP. They vowed not to return unless they had reassurances about where their ads appeared.
Facebook has now updated its system to enable advertisers to avoid appearing next to listings for some of the estimated 6 million user groups on its website.
The blocking feature, which is likely to be offered to advertisers internationally at a later date, will attempt to address marketers’ concerns about the unpredictable and relatively uncensored nature of some of the fast-growing site’s content. The US-based company is working on other ways of giving advertisers more control over which pages they are seen on.
The incident highlighted a risk of advertising on social network websites, which are nevertheless attractive to advertisers because they offer large audiences and innovative marketing formats. Most of the businesses had bought space “blind” from third-party sales houses which sell bundles of slots across many different websites, as there are currently no Facebook sales teams in the UK.
The advertisers were not aware of the BNP link until this was pointed out by media outlets including New Media Age, the UK trade magazine, and the BBC.
The BNP page was in the political groups section of the site which has grown quickly by allowing users to interact for free with friends and contacts, creating blogs or setting up communities of shared interest.
Facebook executives said the BNP page did not break any of the site’s terms of use which, among other things, forbids promotion of hate crimes.
But Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said it was one of “the pillars” of Facebook that users, including advertisers, could control where their information appeared.
Mr Van Natta said only a small number of advertisers had appeared on the BNP page and most of the brands and agencies consulted by the company had chosen to keep appearing in the groups’ section.
He said that the site did not “have an editorial function like a newspaper” but reflected the “reality of what is happening with the socialisation of the web”.
He added: “Most of our groups are in social interest or entertainment categories which can be very rich environments for advertisers.”
No comments:
Post a Comment