Why companies are pulling off ads from social media

TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Updated: Jun 29, 2020, 13:43 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

Why companies are pulling off ads from social media

NEW DELHI: More than 160 advertisers — including PepsiCo, Unilever, Starbucks, Verizon Communications Inc and The North Face — have joined the 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign and pulled off advertisements from social media, especially Facebook, to protest against the platforms' inability to stop hate speech and misinformation.

The Stop Hate for Profit campaign was started by US civil rights groups earlier this month who said that social media was doing too little to stop hate speech on its platforms. The campaign is organized by six US non-profits including the Anti-Defamation League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The campaign follows the death of George Floyd, a US black man who died in police custody, which has triggered worldwide protests against racism and police brutality. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him on May 25.
Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, was criticized after the company, unlike Twitter Inc, decided not to take action on an inflammatory post by President Donald Trump about the Black Life Matter protests held following the killing of George Floyd.
Starbucks, Unilever, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Verizon Communications, Magnolia Pictures, Patagonia, Recreational Equipment Inc, The North Face, Upwork Inc and Rakuten Viber are some of the major brands that have announced either a boycott or pause of advertising on Facebook.
Following widespread criticism, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a live-streamed company townhall that Facebook would ban ads that claim people from groups based on race, religion, sexual orientation or immigration status are a threat to physical safety, health or survival.
Last week, the social media giant said it will start labelling newsworthy content that violates the social media company's policies and label all posts and ads about voting with links to authoritative information, including those from politicians.
A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed its new policy would have meant attaching a link on voting information to US President Donald Trump's post last month about mail-in ballots. Rival Twitter had affixed a fact-checking label to that post.
Facebook also said it is working with civil rights organizations.
Shares of Facebook closed down more than 8% and Twitter ended 7% lower on Friday after Unilever PLC said it would stop its US ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the rest of the year, citing "divisiveness and hate speech during this polarized election period in the US".
"Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society. We will be monitoring ongoing and will revisit our current position if necessary," Unilever said in a statement.
Anti-Defamation League, a US-based civil rights group fighting antisemitism and hate speech, said in a letter to advertisers it had found a Verizon ad on Facebook appearing next to a video containing anti-Semitic rhetoric from conspiracy group QAnon.
Verizon Communications Inc said it was pausing advertising on Facebook following widespread support for the campaign. "We're pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable," a Verizon spokesperson said.
Patagonia, which has been politically vocal in the past, has joined clothing maker VF Corp's outdoor brand The North Face, as well as Recreational Equipment Inc, or REI, in pausing Facebook ads.
"From secure elections to a global pandemic to racial justice, the stakes are too high to sit back and let the company continue to be complicit in spreading disinformation and fomenting fear and hatred," said one of the Patagonia tweets.