Facebook has apologised for publishing a dating ad featuring a photo of a 17-year-old who had killed herself after complaining of being cyber-bullied. The advert had used the title “Find Love in Canada!” and referred users to ionechat.com. That website is no longer online and its owner could not be reached for comment.
Her father said on Wednesday that he had been “disgusted” by the advert.
Facebook said it had banned the company involved from the social network.
“This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the internet and using it in their ad campaign,” a spokesman said.
“This is a gross violation of our ad policies and we have removed the ad and permanently deleted the advertiser’s account.
“We apologise for any harm this caused.”
Canadian Rehtaeh Parsons took her own life in April having been severely bullied after a separate photo, showing her alleged rape by four boys, was circulated online.
Novia Scotia’s government passed a law following Ms Parsons’s death, creating a police unit dedicated to pursuing cyber-bullies.
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