Official Facebook response to ASB ruling

Below is the official response from Facebook in regards to the ASB's ruling in regards to Facebook pages as an advertising medium.

You may have read or heard about the recent decisions by the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) that considered whether specific Facebook Pages, and more specifically, whether comments posted by fans and members of the public on those Pages, complied with the advertising codes.

We understand that these decisions and the media surrounding them may have caused concern, however, we believe that you can continue to do exactly what you have been doing to manage your Page on Facebook.

Our advice to brands is to actively manage their Pages and we support brands in actively managing Facebook Pages in a way that is consistent with industry guidelines and community standards through our policies and the tools that we offer.

For example, the Facebook Page Terms require that Pages are managed in accordance with applicable laws in addition to our own terms and policies.  

We also provide Page administrators with a number of tools to proactively monitor content posted to their Page, including blacklists that help prevent comments containing specific words. Administrators can also delete comments and block people who continue to post harmful content that violates applicable policies.

We are continuing to review this decision and engage with relevant stakeholders about its implications and how to minimise any adverse impact for brands on Facebook.