Facebook apologizes for dating ad with photo of Canada teen who died after bullying
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(Spencer E. Holtaway)
Facebook is apologizing for a stunningly inappropriate advertisement featuring a photograph of a Canada teen who died after months of bullying.
The advertisement was posted on the world's largest social networking site on Tuesday where it was discovered by Andrew Ennals, a copy writer, who took a screen grab of the photo.
“I was stunned at how inappropriate it was,” Ennals said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A spokeswoman for Facebook issued a statement late Tuesday saying the ad was a "gross violation" of the company's policies and has been removed.
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“This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the Internet and using it in their ad campaign,” Facebook said in a statement to Canadian newspaper the Toronto Star.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Facebook said the dating website, Ionechat.com, has been banned. The site could not be reached for comment.
Rehtaeh Parsons died after she was taken off life support following a suicide attempt in April. Her family says the 17-year-old was bullied for months after an alleged sexual assault.
Parsons' father, Glen Canning, says he was disgusted to see the photo.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The ad featured the heading, "Find Love in Canada! Meet Canadian girls and women for friendship, dating or relationships."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.