Facebook announced new changes to its popular social networking site which will change the way it reviews where ads appear on its site in a bid to protect advertisers content from appearing on potentially distasteful pages.
In a posting on its Web site, the company wrote: "Our goal is to both preserve the freedoms of sharing on Facebook but also protect people and brands from certain types of content."
"We know that marketers work hard to promote their brands, and we take their objectives seriously. While we already have rigorous review and removal policies for content against our terms, 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 that from Monday it will implement a new process to determine which pages or groups should feature adverts alongside the content.
According to the BBC news, U.K. retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) and BSkyB were among companies to suspend advertising after complaints that adverts had been placed on pages with offensive material.
The complaint came after an M&S voucher was featured on a Facebook page called "cute and gay boys". The page featured photographs of teenage boys.
As part of the new changes, Facebook said there will be no adverts on pages that feature any violent, graphic or sexual content, even if such content is not in violation of the company's rules.
According to one source, Facebook will create a "gold standard" of around 10,000 pages that are deemed suitable for adverts, and then inspect other pages to see if they can be added to the list. All adverts will be removed from other pages.
