Verizon has joined a growing boycott of advertisers boycotting Facebook and its Instagram affiliate after the company’s objectionable post handling has left many brands uneasy on massive social platforms.
“We are pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we have done with YouTube and other partners,” the company said in a statement. He noted that he has long had “strict content policies” and has “zero tolerance when violated.”
The telecommunications giant joins a list of companies signing the “Stop the Hate for Profit” campaign this week, including Magnolia Pictures, Ben & Jerry’s and Eddie Bauer. Patagonia and REI are two other notable buyers now on the sidelines.
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The Anti-Defamation League has put pressure on top advertisers, including Geico and Verizon, pointing to what it called “egregious examples of hate, misinformation and online extremism” on the platform. Whether these posts technically violate Facebook’s complicated guidelines on hate speech, as a result of the platform’s informal ad placement, paid ads risk being placed alongside divisive (and sometimes blatantly hateful) content. ), “the ADL said in a blog post.
Misleading posts about Antifa’s alleged role in waves of protests in recent weeks have exacerbated concerns about Facebook as an environment for ads. While the reports were quickly disproved, they were allowed to spread uncontrollably in late May and June. Residents of dozens of cities were alarmed by Facebook reports that “anti-fascist” protesters infiltrated their areas and fomented chaos.
Unlike Facebook, Twitter has made at least a cursory move to manage the information spread across its network, including attaching fact-check warnings or other labels to various tweets by President Donald Trump. YouTube, which has also faced backlash from advertisers over its inability to prevent front-line advertisers from making their messages appear alongside violent or objectionable images, has also hardened of late.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has generally taken a laissez-faire stance on content, however, insisting that Facebook is simply a platform and not responsible for the content that appears on it. That position is blamed for helping to enable the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and widespread rigging of the platform by forces aligned with Trump in 2016, the year he was elected.
Beyond politics, the concern of the ADL and other vigilantes is that the general discourse is unguarded and that extremist groups can organize themselves on Facebook and Instagram. Zuckerberg and his management team have tried to address the problem in recent months, but boycott participants are still concerned about the status of those efforts.
Facebook, along with Google, dominates digital advertising. In 2019, total advertising revenue on Facebook reached $ 20.7 billion, 25% more than in 2018.
Adage He was the first to report the Verizon recall, noting that the company is the 10th largest advertiser on Facebook, spending $ 850,000 there during the first three weeks of June.
