British firms pull advertising off Facebook because of racist groups

Sunday, August 19, 2007


From the Gulf Times:

LONDON: Social networking website Facebook was yesterday urged to scrap its British National Party groups amid claims that they featured extreme racist language and calls to “hang gollywogs”.

The US-based site, which is rapidly becoming the latest internet phenomenon, saw six big British firms pull their advertising after they discovered their brands were appearing alongside that of the BNP.

But yesterday former minister Keith Vaz led a group of Labour MPs, MEPs and unions to call for the website to axe all user groups linked to the far-Right party.

Apparently First Direct, Vodafone, Virgin Media, the AA, Halifax and the Prudential have all taken off advertising on the site.

Read more here.