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It’s the impactful and big news of the week as more big firms join the league of companies cutting their advertisement contract and boycotting Facebook because of its stand against hate speech and its resistance on taking off President Trump’s post.
In a call with Facebook employees, who have protested the inaction on Trump’s messages, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO and Founder, said his decision was “pretty thorough.”
Zuckerberg stood firmly behind his decision in early June of this year, not to do anything about Trump’s inflammatory posts on the social network, saying that he had made a “tough decision” but that it “was pretty thorough.”
But this Friday, Zuckerberg bowed down to pressure after more and more companies are followimg the boycott suit, said Facebook will remove posts that incite violence or attempt to suppress voting — even from political leaders — and that the company will affix labels on posts that violate hate speech or other policies.
This could be very late to save the almost $7 billion wiped out from Zuckerberg’s fortune resulting from the sinking of Facebook’s 8% share price.
At least it will give Coca-Cola some time to think about whether to resume its ads after it made a 30 days suspension as the the latest brand to back the #StopHateforProfit campaign by American civil rights groups.
On Wednesday, Viber pulled all advertising from Facebook and its sister app Instagram. Now, the company has begun the more labour-intensive process of removing all Facebook technology from Viber’s own apps.
Viber, owned by the Japanese conglomerate Rakuten, has its largest markets in eastern Europe, south-east Asia, and north Africa, and the company’s chief executive, Djamel Agaoua, said the move to cut ties was prompted by Facebook’s “poor judgment in understanding its role in today’s world”.
Unilever said on Friday that it would stop running ads on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in the United States for at least the rest of 2020, citing a “polarized election period.”
Unilever spends $42.4 million in advertising.
The company, which owns brands such as Dove and Lipton, said that “continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society.” Ben & Jerry’s, an ice cream brand owned by the company, said on Tuesday that it was joining the boycott.
Honda America, Levi Strauss & Company, Verizon, Eddie Bauer, and The North Face are just some of the multinaltional brands that are severing ties with the social network.
Zuckerberg’s announcement on Friday did little to cool complaints from civil rights leaders, who say they’ve spent years trying to get Facebook to understand the seriousness of the problems on the platform and had won only modest concessions. They noted that Facebook already supposedly had strict policies against voter suppression and hate speech and that Friday’s announcement did little to further address those issues.
“Facebook is feeling pressure, which is good,” said Brandi Collins-Dexter, senior campaign director at Color of Change, an activist group long critical of Facebook. “I still think, at the end of the day, they still have a long way to go.”
The boycott of Facebook by major advertisers is a major blow on the social media giant’s stock price and chief executive personal fortune. The boycott also pressures major advertisers to rethink their ad spend on Facebook until it brings in stricter moderation policies.
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