A Facebook picture in which an abused woman is shown huddled in front of a man, with the caption "Every woman deserves equal rights . and lefts", is one of many pictures that have caused uproar among gender-rights groups and disconcerted advertisers on the social media platform.
One photo depicts a bruised woman with her mouth taped shut. The caption reads: "Don't wrap it and tap it, tape her and rape her".
Another, which reads "Next time don't get pregnant", shows a woman who has been pushed down a flight of stairs by a faceless male.
Brittany Everitt-Penhale, a health and social sciences researcher at the SA Medical Research Council, said: "I was shocked by the extreme violence and hatred towards women on these pages. It was blatant misogyny and the encouragement of brutal violence towards women."
Gender-rights activists banded together on May 21 to create a twitter campaign called #fbrape to pressure Facebook into removing the posts. The campaign logged more than 50000 tweets in a week.
Cosmetics brand Dove came under criticism for not withdrawing its advertising.
"We are upset about these images. We are working with Facebook to have these pages removed," said Stacie Bright, Dove's global marketing director.
A week after it had first been brought to its attention, Facebook gave in. Marne Levine, its global public policy head, said: "In recent days it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed."
She said the company would review its content guidelines and hold users more accountable for content. It hasremoved the pages of many of the offending groups.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
