Advertising Rules Applicable to Social Media Pages

In a recent ruling in Australia, Facebook was held to be an advertising medium, rather than just a communication device. As such, the ruling requires that companies’ Facebook pages must comply with industry regulated codes and consumer protection laws. In effect, the ruling dictates that companies can be fined and otherwise penalized for comments that appear on a company’s Facebook page. To that end, companies must now monitor comments posted by the public on the company’s Facebook page to ensure the comments are not sexist, racist, or factually inaccurate.

As more and more companies have turned to Facebook and other social media outlets as a major source of advertising, this Australian ruling is all the more significant as it may foreshadow a trend that may translate to the United States.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/social-media-pages-are-ads-20120805-23nz4.html

For more information, please visit our social media law service page.

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