Facebook Ad Boycott Grows, Citing Failure to Control Hate Speech -- Update
June 29 2020 - 7:40PM
Dow Jones News
By Micah Maidenberg
Ford Motor Co., Clorox Co. and Denny's Corp. are joining a
parade of companies that have moved to halt advertising spending on
Facebook Inc. because of how the social-media giant has handled
speech on its platforms.
Ford said Monday it will suspend its national social-media
advertising for 30 days, as it re-evaluates spending on sites.
Restaurant chain Denny's said it is pausing paid advertising on
Facebook starting Wednesday.
Clorox -- the company behind its namesake cleaning supplies,
Kingsford charcoal and other consumer brands -- said it is pausing
global ad spending on Facebook and Instagram through December. The
move is to act against hate speech, "which we believe will increase
through the balance of the year," the company said in a
statement.
Civil-rights groups like the NAACP have been pushing advertisers
to pull spending from Facebook to protest what they describe as a
failure to halt hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
It isn't immediately clear whether the boycott will take a
meaningful toll on business at Facebook, which has the
second-largest share of the U.S. digital ad market. Operating chief
Sheryl Sandberg said in April that Facebook had 8 million
advertisers on its main platform.
In a Monday research note, MKM Partners linked to a spreadsheet
that by the evening listed more than 240 companies, organizations
and individuals committed to the campaign associated with the
hashtag #StopHateForProfit.
The varied approaches companies are taking to pause spending
could have a muted impact on Facebook. Some advertisers pledged to
pull spending for July, while others are planning longer pauses. In
addition some firms are pulling spending on Facebook, but not
Facebook-owned Instagram.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company invests billions each
year to ensure safety and continuously works with outside experts
to review and update its policies.
The company has banned 250 white supremacist organizations from
Facebook and Instagram, she said, adding that artificial
intelligence allows Facebook to find close to 90% of hate speech
before users report it.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the company
was making further changes to its platform. On Friday he said
Facebook will add labels to certain posts and forbid advertisements
that claim specific groups of people pose threats to the physical
safety, health or survival of others.
Within the past week, Verizon Communications Inc., Coca-Cola
Co., Unilever PLC, Levi Strauss & Co. and Denny's Corp. were
among companies announcing they would pause spending on
Facebook.
Unilever, the consumer-products company behind Dove soap,
Hellmann's mayonnaise and other items, said it would halt ad
spending on Facebook and Twitter for at least the remainder of the
year, citing hate speech and other divisive content.
Verizon said it would suspend spending on Facebook and
Instagram. Coca-Cola Co. and spirits maker Diageo PLC said they
would temporarily halt spending on all social-media platforms for
30 days starting in July. Starbucks Corp. said it would pause
advertising on all social media pending internal discussions and
those with media partners and civil rights groups.
Meanwhile, a Microsoft Corp. spokesperson said the tech giant
has paused spending on Facebook and Instagram. Axios had earlier
reported the software giant suspended its advertising on Facebook's
platforms in May and has concerns about the placement of
advertisements but isn't taking part in the larger boycott
effort.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2020 19:25 ET (23:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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