Facebook has revealed plans not to allow ads to appear on pages with sexual or violent content, as part of its efforts to deal with concerns about offensive content.
As part of the move, the social networking firm is to create a ‘safe zone’ for advertisers to trim down the risks of ads appearing alongside the offensive material.
The move follows several businesses pulling their ads from Facebook in the midst of reports of pages on the site that encouraged violence against women.
Facebook said in a statement: "Our goal is to both preserve the freedoms of sharing on Facebook but also protect people and brands from certain types of content."
The social networking site also revealed plans to expand the scope of pages and groups on its website that have to be ad-restricted and assured to eliminate ads from the flagged areas of the website by the end of the following week.
Initially, the process of flagging objectionable pages and removing ads would be carried out manually, while an automated system would be developed in the coming weeks.
Reports reveal that Facebook will also create a ‘gold standard’ of about 10,000 pages that are believed to be suitable for adverts, and then examine other pages if they could be added to the list.
In June 2013, Facebook reported of having one million active advertisers worldwide.