Amid the death of George Floyd, a number of civil right organizations including the NAACP, Color of Change and Anti-Defamation League have all asked advertisers to stop paying for the services on Facebook because the result of George Floyd’s death in the custody of a Police Officer who has had a number of cases and reports filed against him led to a mass protest throughout the world with people chorusing #BlackLivesMatter.
Meanwhile there was a chaotic side of the story had led to some social unrest which had caused theft and mass looting. The US President, Donald Trump on the other hand reacted to this by calling the protesters “Thugs” which had caused a number of civil right organizations to question his motives after the comment “When the looting starts, the shooting starts”.
That comment first got struck by Twitter moderation but Facebook did nothing to it and that outraged a number of people who didn’t find Facebook’s stance on the issue to be a good one and that nearly led to a little bit of a rift between Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and a number of his employees who were also protesting. There have been Companies that are now halting their Facebook Advertisement over the company’s stance on “speech” allowed on the platform.
However, companies like The North Face, REI and Talkspace have all halted their paid advertisement on the platform some of which are just for the month of July. North Face is one of Facebook’s major brand to halt its paid advertising on the platform in the wake of the call to do so.
The decision was announced yesterday and that pause will also be extended to Instagram which is also owned by Facebook. “We know that for too long harmful, racist rhetoric and misinformation has made the world unequal and unsafe, and we stand with the NAACP and the other organizations who are working to #StopHateforProfit,” Steve Lesnard, The North Face’s global VP of marketing, said in a statement.
REI is another company which had paused it’s paid advertisement on Facebook and the company said it would only be for the month of July. While the CEO of Talkspace, a mental health application Oren Frank made it known that he “will not support a platform that incites violence, racism and lies.”
Another company that followed this same track is the software company Braze whose CMO, Sara Spivey called for other companies to join the boycott on Twitter. Fons, which is a payment company also did the same while the CEO and Founder of the company Eric Branner said the boycott could change Facebook’s policy over the type of content allowed on the platform.
These companies halting their Facebook Advertisement might be their best ways of protesting the company’s policy.
Bree Tyller
There have been a widespread criticism of Facebook’s action to not take down President Trump’s post or label it as “Hate Speech” but according to the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg who said he believed in complete freedom of speech, stated clearly that the President Trump’s post didn’t violate any of the company’s community guidelines whatsoever.
Do you think Facebook’s move is healthy for general freedom of speech or allowing such comment on it’s platform would incite violence and racism? Do tell us your opinion in the comment section below.
