In Response To Boycott, Facebook Says They'll Finally Address Hate Speech

By Susie Madrak — July 1, 2020

CNN's John Berman noted that the list of companies joining a Facebook boycott is growing, including Target and Mass Mutual. "Abby Phillip has a lot more."

"Yeah, John, this is a big issue for Facebook for quite some time now but it seems that the moment has finally come for them to face this kind of pressure," Phillip said.

"I think the combination of the Black Lives Matter movement has pushed in advertisers to say that the company needs to do more and they have announced some new changes, but that has not stopped this avalanche of corporations, Fortune 500 companies from pulling their ads beginning today.

"The world's largest social media company now under unprecedented pressure from the advertisers to do more to stop hate speech online. Dozens of companies pausing advertising on Facebook in protest. The debate touching the highest office in the land with Facebook continuing under fire for leaving up the recent posts where President Trump threatened looters with shooting and spreading false claims and misinformation about mail-in voting."

>> I think as we watch Donald Trump become more and more volatile with his posts, the fact that these companies have sat on their hands and allowed it means that they are complicit.

Rashad Robinson of Color Of Change, one of the civil rights groups that have started the stop the hate boycott says the choice is simple.

Do you want your ads showing up next to white nationalists organizations? Do you feel comfortable having your ads next to theirs and putting on messages about why black lives matter?

"Civil rights advocates are pushing Facebook to do more, including removing content and groups that promote hate and disinformation. allowing outside audits of the content and advertising policy and giving advertisers refunds if their ads run alongside content that was removed because it violated the company's policies. With more than 98% of all of Facebook's revenue coming from advertising, the pressure on Facebook's bottom line is only growing," Phillip said.

At Facebook, we have absolutely no incentive to tolerate hate speech. We don't like it, our users don't like it, advertisers understandably don't like it.

"Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who's been criticized for appearing to be too close to President Trump and his campaign saying publicly that the company will put in place new policies to flag, label and even remove content that violates its rules, including from the president," she said.

If we determine the content may lead to violence or deprive people of their right to vote, we're going to take that content down no matter who says it. Similarly, there are no exceptions for politicians.

"Activists say Facebook is acting out of fear, worried that President Trump will attempt to regulate social media companies he claims are targeting conservatives online," Phillip said.

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