Facebook Removes Dating Ad Featuring Victim’s Photo

Facebook has apologized for posting an advertisement for a dating website which featured a photo of a 17-year-old Nova Scotia girl who committed suicide earlier this year.

Rehtaeh Parsons took her own life in April after allegedly being sexually assaulted by four boys, and enduring months of cyber-bullying.

The ad published on Facebook this week was linked to a website called ionechat.com. It featured a photo of Rehtaeh under the heading, “Find love in Canada! Meet Canadian girls and women for friendship, dating or relationships.”

The girl’s father, Glen Canning, said he was "disgusted" by the advertisement after it was called to his attention. He called it the worst ad ever.

According to various accounts, the ad was up for a couple of hours before being taken down.

Facebook quickly issued a statement saying, "This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the internet and using it in their ad campaign. This is a gross violation of our ad policies and we have removed the ad and permanently deleted the advertiser's account. We apologize for any harm this caused."

Nova Scotia passed a law following Rehtaeh's death, creating a police unit dedicated to pursuing cyber-bullies.

Source: Canadian Press