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HALIFAX — The family of Rehtaeh Parsons expressed outrage on Wednesday after a dating website ad on Facebook used a picture of the 17-year-old bullying victim.

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The Nova Scotia girl died after attempting suicide in April.

The ad featured a picture of Parsons under the heading, “Find Love in Canada! Meet Canadian girls and women for friendship, dating or relationships.”

Facebook has apologized for featuring the ad, claiming it was a “gross violation” of the company’s policies and has been removed.

“This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the Internet and using it in their ad campaign,” a spokesperson said in the emailed statement.



“This is a gross violation of our ad policies and we have removed the ad and permanently deleted the advertiser’s account.

“We apologize for any harm this has caused.”

Parsons was taken off life-support following a suicide attempt, which her family says was brought on by months of bullying following an alleged sexual assault.