Updated: The brands boycotting Facebook and Zuckerberg’s response
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
More brands are joining the Stop [1]Hate for Profit[2] Facebook ads boycott. The campaign asks brands to pause their ad spend on Facebook and Instagram in July and charges that Facebook has tolerated racism and hate speech and “turned a blind eye toward voter suppression on their platform.”
Expanding boycott. There are reports that more than 100 brands and companies have joined the boycott. The major ones we know of so far include:
- Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (owned by Unilever)
- Eddie Bauer
- Honda Motor Company
- Magnolia Pictures
- North Face
- Patagonia
- REI
- Unilever[3]
- Upwork
- Verizon Communications[4]
Facebook statement and changes. In the face of intensifying public pressure, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a statement[5] Friday vowing to make a number of policy and practical changes on the platform:
- Providing voting information and helping people register to vote
- Preventing “new forms of potential voter suppression”
- Banning “any content that misleads people on when or how they can vote,” including “respond and remove false claims about polling conditions in the 72 hours leading into election day.”
- Helping prevent voter intimidation on the platform
- Ads policy will now “prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others”
- Labeling but allowing content from public figures that otherwise violates terms
- Removing content, regardless of the source, “if we determine that content may lead to violence or deprive people of their right to vote”
Balancing interests. Zuckerberg says that in implementing these policies the company is trying to balance “public health and racial justice while maintaining our democratic traditions around free expression and voting.”
Below, Mark Zuckerberg elaborates upon the above policy changes.
About The Author
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.
References
- ^ Stop (www.stophateforprofit.org)
- ^ Hate for Profit (www.stophateforprofit.org)
- ^ Unilever (searchengineland.com)
- ^ Verizon Communications (searchengineland.com)
- ^ posted a statement (www.facebook.com)
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