TECH
9:36 PM PDT 06/28/2020
by
Abid Rahman
So far, more than 180 companies have signed up for the #StopHateForProfit campaign that is pushing for the social media giant to tackle hate speech and disinformation on their platforms.
Starbucks, Levi’s and global spirits giant Diageo are the latest front-line companies to join the growing advertising boycott of Facebook and its affiliate Instagram about the handling of racism, violence and disinformation by the social media giant on their platform.
CNBC reports that Starbucks will stop advertising on “all social media platforms,” but will continue to publish without paid promotion. “We believe in uniting communities, both in person and online, and we are against hate speech,” Starbucks said in a statement to CNBC Sunday. “We believe that more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe that both business leaders and policy makers must come together to bring about real change.”
Levi’s tweeted: “Facebook must take steps to stop disinformation and hate speech on its platforms. It is an unacceptable affront to our values. We and @Dockers join the #StopHateForProfit campaign and stop all ads on @Facebook and @ Instagram.
In a statement posted on Twitter, British beverage company Diageo, which owns the Smirnoff, Tanqueray and Johnnie Walker brands, said: “Diageo strives to promote diversity, including through our own marketing campaigns. July, we will pause all advertising payments globally across major social media platforms. We will continue to discuss with media partners how they will handle unacceptable content. ”
On June 17, a group that included the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color of Change, Free Press, and Common Sense launched the #StopHateForProfit social media campaign that urged companies to suspend advertising on Facebook and their Instagram affiliate for The month of July.
Since the launch of the campaign, outdoor clothing firms Patagonia, The North Face and Arc’teryx, outdoor equipment company REI, tech companies Dashlane and Upwork were among the first to say they will join the boycott. In the past week, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnolia Pictures, Hershey’s, Mozilla, Verizon, Coca-Cola, Honda and Unilever are among the big names that have joined the boycott.
Facebook has faced strong criticism, externally and internally, in recent months for the misinformation and racist content spread on its platform, and in particular the posts by President Donald Trump that have been widely condemned as dangerous or incite violence. The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been adamant that Facebook will not regulate online speech. “I firmly believe that Facebook should not be the arbiter of the truth of everything people say online,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Fox News last month. “Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position to do that.”
Last Friday, when the advertising boycott began to gain momentum, Facebook said it will mark all posts “newsworthy” by politicians and political groups that break its rules, including Trump’s, as well as a ban on posts that discourage voting. with false statements.
