Facebook Inc (FB): Offensive Posts Costing 2 Key Ad Partnerships

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been in the headlines lately for something not in its control and not taking responsibility for it, and those have been causing a firestorm over the last couple of weeks. And while a PR nightmare is never a good thing in and of itself, when a company really gets hurt is where most people feel the pinch – in the pocketbook.

A day after Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) said it would conduct a full review and update to its terms of use and its policy on “hate speech” in the wake of a protest campaign over posts that indicated rape and violence against women, a couple of prominent advertising partners announced that the fire was a little too hot for them and hit too close to home and that they would be pulling their ad campaigns on the international social network.

The first partners to publicly announce their campaign suspensions, especially in the U.K. were Nissan and Nationwide, as they both noted that in Facebook’s system of placing targeted ads with users, that it seemed that their ads were regularly coming up in very close proximity to some of the offensive posts that have been displayed on Facebook.

Dove, a subsidiary of Unilever, is on the list of companies considering a suspension, but Unilever is currently working with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to try to clean up the site of the offensive content and set up new policy terms that would more readily ban specific references to violence against women. Nissan says it is also working with Facebook to remove the posts and work on the algorithm that slots the ads to help move Nissan ads away from offensive content.

The algorithm is set up based on certain data about users, their preferences and the items they “like” on Facebook and elsewhere on the web (when they are logged into Facebook), and the ads that are shown are targeted toward that user based on criteria set by the advertiser and cross-references with the data compiled by Facebook about the users.

So what is it about Nissan and Nationwide ads that get them so close to this type of content at Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)?

While Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) does not usually release information about its ad-placement algorithm, the two companies noted that it seemed their ads were pretty regularly being slotted very close to this offensive content – some of the ads showing up in screenshots about the offensive content, which of course is like taking a picture for posterity.

We will have to see how the algorithm gets altered so that these ads don’t appear on those pages, and what Facebook will ultimately do to try to police its pages better. While Facebook does not have control over what its users post, there is certainly a push for Facebook to monitor and police its pages more thoroughly and delete posts or whole pages in a timely and efficient manner.

Give us your thoughts about this campaign against Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and about hate speech on the Internet. Leave your feedback in the comments section below.

DISCLOSURE: None