Zuckerberg: Advertisers will return to Facebook “very soon”

As the advertising boycott grows, Mark Zuckerberg shows no signs of backing down.

“I guess all of these advertisers will be coming back to the platform soon,” said Facebook’s chief executive.

Activists accuse the tech company of being too slow and reluctant to remove hateful content.

But Zuckerberg added: “We are not going to change our policies or approaches on anything because of a threat to a small percentage of our income.”

The comments were made to Facebook staff in a private meeting last Friday, and were subsequently leaked to the information news site.

The social network confirmed that they are accurate and also announced a new development: its executive director will meet with the organizers of the boycott: Stop Hate for Profit.

It illustrates the concurrent ways Facebook is dealing with the matter.

The first is to be a conciliator publicly: offer smaller changes and spread your message that hate has no place on the platform.

The second is to privately minimize the impact of the boycott: reassure advertisers and resist any fundamental change in Facebook’s business model.

Balancing act

Yesterday, the firm’s head of global affairs, Sir Nick Clegg, released an open letter to the advertising world.

He tried to calm fears that the company had not done enough to combat hatred. Not surprisingly, he didn’t echo his boss and added, “You’ll be back.”

Now, of course, companies have different internal and external messages.

But this one in particular underscores the delicate tightrope that Facebook is trying to step on.

The company is undoubtedly shaken by this boycott. According to a list compiled by its organizers, more than 600 brands are now participating.

This week, Facebook sent an email to companies and advertising agencies assuring them that it was doing everything possible to eliminate hate speech.

“This work never ends, and we are proud of how our apps can help people unite, learn and organize against hate and show solidarity,” said an email to an advertising agency.

But the boycott is not hurting Facebook as much as you might think.

In fact, Zuckerberg, at that same employee meeting, called the problem a “reputation and partner problem” rather than a financial one.

and he has a point. The vast majority of companies continue to advertise with Facebook.

Take the UK for example.

Here are the top 10 companies that advertised on Facebook last year and how much they spent, according to analytics company Pathmatics:

• Huel, a manufacturer of powdered food (£ 27m)
• Microsoft (£ 25 million)
• Tesco (£ 22m)
• Giffgaff (£ 18m)
• Proctor & Gamble (£ 18m)
• Summary payments (£ 17m)
• BT (£ 17 million)
• Vodafone (£ 16 million)
• American Express (£ 15 million)
• Just eat (£ 15m)

With the exception of Microsoft, they all seem to advertise on Facebook.

And thousands upon thousands of small and medium-sized companies are doing the same.

Back to Washington

An advertising executive sent me an expletive text yesterday, rejecting the idea that his clients would stop advertising on Facebook.

It’s that kind of message that gives Zuckerberg a reason to be optimistic.

Areeq Chowdhury of WebRoots Democracy also believes that companies that have joined the boycott will return.

“The advertising these Internet giants offer is unparalleled.” he says.

“The level of targeting they can achieve doesn’t compare anywhere else, so it’s hard for me to believe that many of them will stop advertising in the long term.”

That seems to be what the market thinks too.

After a drop in Facebook’s stock price, it’s back to where it was last week.

So Facebook’s strategy so far seems to be working.

The far bigger concern is contagion, for example, if users started leaving Facebook and Instagram in large numbers in response to the boycott. But once again, there is little evidence of that happening.

On Wednesday, it was confirmed that Zuckerberg, along with Google’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, would testify before Congress at an antitrust hearing later this month.

If the boycott continues to gather strength, it could be an awkward encounter, no matter how sure Facebook feels.