Home topics small-business-resources legal Legal Social Media Legal Is Facebook just for friends? Jo Macdermott October 2, 2012 If you’re actively using your Facebook page for promotion, you should be aware that you comply with advertising and customer standards. You may have heard of certain criteria and rules being applied to your advertising material by the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) , but what about the same standards being applied to responses to your Facebook posts? Even though you might be careful not to post anything “ethically questionable or factually incorrect” on your business Facebook page, what happens if your fans or other users are not as vigilant? The ASB recently ruled that Facebook is an advertising platform, meaning that comments left on pages by third parties can be considered advertising, and can leave a business (just like yours) liable for hefty fines (and public censure) if comments contravene advertising standards. The ruling specifically targeted two Australian alcohol brands, after public complaints about inappropriate content and offensive comments on their Facebook pages that were seen to encourage excessive alcohol consumption. The businesses were deemed responsible for all the content on their Facebook pages, and ordered to moderate user comments. The brands were seen to have actively solicited comments and images that were inappropriate, although they may not have paid for them in the same way a business pays for more traditional forms of advertising space. So what does this mean for your business? Are we all going to have to start