ISBA welcomes Facebook’s move to restrict violent videos and photos on its home feed
British advertising trade body ISBA has welcomed Facebook’s move to restrict violent or graphic videos and photos on its news feed, which could shock or upset people aged under 18 years old.
The social network pledged its commitment to policing access to images and videos posted on its network yesterday (13 January).
ISBA’s marketing services manager David Ellison applauded the move, which will help reduce the risk of brands having their ads appear alongside inappropriate messaging, which can lead to brand reputational ramifications.
“Restricting and placing clear warnings over videos which might ‘shock, offend and upset’ is welcomed by advertisers, who want to place their ads in safe environments. The last thing advertisers want is for their brands to be associated in any way with this type of content.
“We applaud Facebook for their continued efforts to listen to users’ and advertisers’ concerns and act decisively. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Facebook to improve brand safety on their site even further,” said Ellison.
Brand safety issues on Facebook has been an ongoing issue for advertisers in the last few years, with several brands seeing their ads appear inadvertently next to videos showing graphic or extremist content.
Previously Nissan and Nationwide were forced to pull their ads from Facebook after they found to be appearing alongside campaigns condoning domestic violence.
Facebook is not the only platform to grapple with ad misplacement issues – YouTube has also struggled to entirely root out all ad misplacements. Last year Oxfam had to pull its ads from YouTube after they appear ahead of ISIS recruitment videos.
Meanwhile South Barnet University also had to pull its ads from YouTube after its ads appeared against graphic video footage of the MH17 Malaysian airplane crash.