Firms warned on Facebook comments

Large companies that fail to remove false and misleading comments from their brands' Facebook pages within 24 hours face potential court action, the competition watchdog has said.

Companies are required to monitor comments left by the public to ensure they comply with advertising guidelines and consumer law, after a ruling by the advertising industry's regulator last week that everything that appears on a brand's Facebook page is advertising.

Now the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lent its voice to the Advertising Standards Board ruling, which has thrown the marketing industry into turmoil as companies face the prospect of being penalised for what members of the public post on their sites.

An ACCC commissioner, Sarah Court, said she expected big companies that used Facebook to promote themselves to take down comments within a day or less.

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