It is rare that a company warns journalists less than twenty minutes before a public speech by its CEO. Mark Zuckerberg’s announcements on Friday, June 26, at 8 p.m., live on his Facebook page, show the urgency of the situation and the excitement of the social network. The founder of the firm was trying to counter the rise of a boycott among big advertisers like Unilever or Verizon. These multinationals have put ” a break ” their advertising spending on Facebook at least until the end of July, believing that the platform is not doing enough against hate speech, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement in defense of the rights of blacks.
Friday, Zuckerberg was forced to announce a measure he has been refusing to take for several weeks: Facebook will add a warning on messages from politicians whose content is problematic, while leaving them online because they have an informative value. Exactly what Twitter did in late May with two Tweets from Donald Trump deemed misleading or hateful.
The move sparked the President’s fury. And a campaign against the policies of Mr. Zuckerberg, accused of allowing a hateful head of state to act. Indeed, Facebook had stood out from Twitter, in the name of freedom of expression and by refusing to place itself in “Arbiter of truth” comments from the political sphere.
Pression
But since then, American anti-racism associations – including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Anti-Defamation League – have launched a campaign targeting advertisers and calling for a boycott. Followed, from June 19, medium-sized companies, known for their communication on ethics: The North Face, Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s … The social network tried to reassure, but did not change its policy. But the pressure rose several notches, when the telecoms operator Verizon took the plunge, Thursday June 25, before being joined by the multinationals Unilever, Levi’s or Honda, causing the Facebook action to plunge on the Stock Exchange.
Will Mr. Zuckerberg’s dealerships stop the slingshot of advertisers? Brand boycotts are often transient, like the one decreed against the YouTube video platform in 2017 for its policy of moderation deemed too lax. But Coca-Cola and Starbucks announced their withdrawal from Facebook after Zuckerberg spoke. And the political context of the US presidential election in November, very unstable, will attract very strong attention on social networks.
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