Amidst concern over content that promotes violence against women, Facebook this week pledged to review its policies on hate speech.

In a blog post, the social network said it will review the guidelines it currently has in place for removing offensive content, and hold those who create the content more accountable.

The move comes after several women's groups last week penned a letter to Facebook asking the company to evaluate "the representation of rape and domestic violence on Facebook." They pointed to Facebook Pages like Fly Kicking Sluts in the Uterus, Kicking your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she won't make you a Sandwich, Violently Raping Your Friend Just for Laughs, Raping your Girlfriend, and more.

The groups also took issue with images of battered women that included captions like "This bitch didn't know when to shut up" and "Next time don't get pregnant."

"These pages and images are approved by your moderators, while you regularly remove content such as pictures of women breastfeeding, women post-mastectomy and artistic representations of women's bodies," according to the groups, which includes Women, Action & and Media.

Facebook's terms of service bans content that is "directly harmful," but allows content that is offensive or controversial in an effort to "balance concerns about free expression and community respect."

Still, "it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate," wrote Marne Levine, vice president of Global Public Policy at Facebook. "In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria."

As a result, Levine pledged "to do better," a promise that starts with a review and update to the guidelines that Facebook's user operations team uses to evaluate reports of community standards violations, and better training for those employees.

"To ensure that these guidelines reflect best practices, we will solicit feedback from legal experts and others, including representatives of the women's coalition and other groups that have historically faced discrimination," Levine wrote.

Meanwhile, Levine also promised to "increase the accountability" of those who create offensive content.

"A few months ago we began testing a new requirement that the creator of any content containing cruel and insensitive humor include his or her authentic identity for the content to remain on Facebook," Levine wrote. "As a result, if an individual decides to publicly share cruel and insensitive content, users can hold the author accountable and directly object to the content. We will continue to develop this policy based on the results so far, which indicate that it is helping create a better environment for Facebook users."

Finally, Levine said Facebook will engage more formally with groups that work on these topics. "These are complicated challenges and raise complex issues," she wrote. "Our recent experience reminds us that we can't answer them alone."

Women, Action & and Media said it was pleased by Facebook's response. "We are hopeful that this moment will mark an historic transition in relation to media and women's rights in which Facebook is acknowledged as a leader in fostering safer, genuinely inclusive online communities, setting industry precedents for others to follow," the group said.