Marks and Spencer

Google, which has seen a slew of companies withdraw ads after they appeared alongside extremist content, said on March 21 it was introducing new tools to give firms greater control.

"We know advertisers don't want their ads next to content that doesn't align with their values," Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler said in a post on the internet giant's blog.

France's minister for women's rights on March 30 compared women who choose to wear conservative Islamic dress to the "American negroes" who once supported slavery, sparking anger and accusations of racism.