Who's afraid of user-generated content?

The government's Central Office of Information (COI) has put a freeze on advertising on user-generated pages of social networking websites such as Facebook, the Financial Times reports.

The COI, which is responsible for organising campaigns on issues such as health, welfare and education, is reviewing its policy on using social networking sites because of concerns that lack of editorial control over user-generated content could lead to sensitive government publicity campaigns being displayed alongside inappropriate or offensive content.

In an interview with the FT, the chief executive of the COI, Alan Bishop, explained: "We always have to keep a very close eye on the context. People are still getting to grips with this. We don't want to exclude the use of any of the new social media but we do have to have a very clear idea of what the context is going to be like."

Last week, New Media Age reported that adverts for Capital One, eBay, First Direct, LoveFilm and Vodafone were appearing alongside the official Facebook group page of controversial political organisation, the British National Party.

Several companies - including the AA, First Direct, Virgin Media and Vodafone - subsequently pulled ads from Facebook, according to various newspaper reports.

In a statement provided to silicon.com, Jamie Galloway, COI director of digital media, confirmed a 'temporary pause' on advertising on websites "that have not provided COI and [its online media buying management agency] i-level with the assurances our bookings require".

He said: "COI will be talking to i-level and the respective media owners this week to review individual bookings. COI and i-level will then update and amend bookings accordingly."

He added that the COI "is not considering removing all social-media activity indefinitely" - and said it will regularly review use of such media for its campaigns.

Facebook was unavailable for comment.

The social network site, which claimed to have 30 million active users as of last month, has been racking up phenomenal user growth in the UK. According to recent ComScore research, the site has year-on-year user growth here of more than 2,000 per cent over the past 12 months.

The company, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is thought to be looking at opening a UK sales office this autumn.

This is not the first time Facebook has been in the headlines lately - last week reports surfaced of it being banned from workplaces on the grounds of having a negative impact on staff productivity.