Facebook’s largest advertising companies including Starbucks, Microsoft, Verizon, and Unilever have pulled their ads from the site. This Sunday Nick Clegg, the company’s VP for Public Affairs, stated that the company has no incentive to promote hate speech. He said that the protest has been damaging for the platform, and Facebook does not benefit from the proliferation of hate speech across its platform.
He also stressed the efforts Facebook make to tackle hate speech across its platform. He said that Facebook removes approximately 3 million posts containing hate speech across the globe every month. He also revealed that 90% of these items are removed before they are even reported.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook, announced on Friday an expanded policy on hate speech. According to this policy, ads that scapegoat asylum seekers, minorities, immigrants, and racial groups, will be banned. The company also announced to include labels to posts that newsworthy but violates Facebook’s policies.
Facebook has been facing criticism when the company did not remove controversial posts from US President, Donald Trump. However, it seems that advertisers are not satisfied with the new move. After Facebook announced the expanded policy, Hershey’s also announced to join the boycott stating that Facebook is not efficiently managing violent and divisive content across its platform.
Starbucks, Facebook’s 6th largest advertiser, announced on Sunday to pause all its social media advertising, however, it did not cite the #StopHateForProfit boycott. Clegg stated that Facebook has made ‘meaningful changes,’ and plans to redouble its efforts to tackle hate speech. He said that they constantly need to improve implementing their policies. Other than instances of hate speech, the company has also been criticized for the frequent presence of divisive content on the platform. Clegg explained that Facebook cannot get rid of everything that users react negatively to.
Facebook will continue to tackle hate speech in particular, he added. The company understands that this is a fraught intense time in the country, and Facebook will continue to demonstrate its sincerity in dealing with this issue.
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