I noticed a BNP group on Facebook a days ago whilst searching for ‘old people hate groups’ (that’s another story). I’d have gritted my teeth in the name of ‘free speech’ and moved on but the picture on the group carried an unspeakably vile message about believers in Islam. So I fired off an “unsuitable content” message. I heard nothing back from Facebook, which disappointed but didn’t altogether suprise me.
Then the Telegraph published this report yesterday about banner ads appearing next to the BNP’s Facebook group. The problem is that you can’t control where your advertising might appear with the degree of granularity that blocks out, say, Nazis. So Vodaphone and First Direct, being highly protective of their brands, have walked until their buyers can put better controls in place. I’d add, though, that the numbers associated with this kind of group (and ‘oldster’ ‘hate’ groups for that matter) are small and the dialogue appears reassuringly juvenile.
I’d classify it as a growing pain for Facebook in business terms but it’s something they’ll have to fix if they’re in the business of managing a community for the long haul. Proper moderation requires resources and investment. On the other hand, if you ban the admittedly highly unpleasant BNP, then who do you ban next if an advertiser makes a fuss? It’s not the Harvard dorm anymore, Zuckerman…
Is it a problem for organisations like ours using Facebook? Tricky. The odds are vanishingly small of anything we do being associated with seriously inappropriate groups in that way but we’ll need to keep our eyes open.
See also some useful commentary in a Guardian column from April. Thanks to prisonlawinsideout which highlighted this.
