Coca-Cola signs up to Facebook boycott

The world’s biggest brands join a growing advertising boycott of Facebook over its inability to control hate speech.

Mark Zuckerberg was pilloried for displaying a post from Donald Trump last month about the protests over George Floyd’s deaths. Picture: AFP

Facebook is in crisis as the world’s biggest brands joined a growing advertising boycott over the social network’s inability to control hate speech.

Coca-Cola, Honda and American sweets giant Hershey’s added their names on Saturday to more than 100 companies that have publicly pledged to suspend all advertising on the platform.

The roster of rebels has been driven by Stop Hate for Profit, an initiative launched 11 days ago by civil rights organisations including the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and the Anti-Defamation League.

It calls on big brands to stop running campaigns on Facebook until at least the end of July as a protest against laissez-faire policies that let hate speech, misinformation and extremist groups thrive on the platform.

The rebellion could prove a turning point for social media companies, which profit from content generated by their users but have been unwilling or unable to ensure that the resulting cacophony is not polluted by divisive or dangerous material.

Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was pilloried for displaying a post from Donald Trump last month about the protests over George Floyd’s death. In the post Trump warned that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.

Coca Cola’s 30-day ad suspension underlined dissatisfaction with stricter rules Mr Zuckerberg rolled out on Friday in an attempt to assuage concerns. Facebook has eight million advertisers.

Roger McNamee, an early adviser to Mr Zuckerberg who has turned into a vociferous critic, said: “The hate speech is there because it maximises engagement.”

Some advertisers, such as Unilever and Verizon, have gone further than pulling spending on Facebook for July, and have also targeted Twitter and Instagram.

Unilever, the $215bn British consumer goods group, suspended US advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter until the end of the year at least.

Verizon, the $327bn US mobile network provider, pulled adverts on Facebook and Instagram until an “acceptable solution” was found for policing harmful content.

Unilever said: “Continuing to advertise on these platforms would not add value to people and society. We acknowledge the efforts of our partners but there is much more to be done, especially in the areas of divisiveness and hate speech during this polarised election period in the US.”

Verizon said: “We have strict content policies in place and have zero tolerance. When they are breached, we take action. We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution.”

Investors had wiped about $US50bn from Facebook’s market value by lunchtime in New York on Friday as the company’s shares slumped by 7 per cent. Twitter shares were also down by about 7 per cent.

On Saturday Mr Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would update its advertising policies to prohibit hate speech. He said the company was banning ads that suggested gender, race, origin or religion was a threat to the physical safety or health of others.

Facebook also said it will do more to protect immigrants from adverts that suggest they are inferior to other groups.

It will also start placing a label on posts that violate its rules but are deemed newsworthy.

The Times