Facebook to Develop ‘Topic Exclusion Controls’ for Advertisers to Tackle Harmful Content

Advertisers have complained for years that big social media companies do little to prevent ads from appearing alongside hate speech and fake news.

By Reuters | Updated: 30 January 2021 11:06 IST

Facebook to Develop ‘Topic Exclusion Controls’ for Advertisers to Tackle Harmful Content

Facebook was accused for not doing enough to curb hate speech on its site

Highlights

Facebook is developing "topic exclusion controls"
The new tools will help advertisers tackle harmful content
Facebook would start testing the new controls with a small group

Facebook said on Friday it would soon start developing "topic exclusion controls" on its platform to give advertisers greater ability to weed out certain types of content from appearing alongside their ads.

This comes after companies including Coca-Cola and Starbucks boycotted Facebook in July for not doing enough to curb hate speech on its site following the death of George Floyd, an American Black man, in police custody.

Advertisers have complained for years that big social media companies do very little to prevent ads from appearing alongside hate speech, fake news and other harmful content. In September, Facebook as well as YouTube and Twitter signed a deal with big advertisers to curb harmful content online.

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Facebook said in a blog post on Friday the controls would help advertisers define how their ads show on Facebook News Feed, adding that it would start testing out the controls with a small group of advertisers, a process which could take about a year to complete.

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© Thomson Reuters 2021

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