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Facebook is under pressure from certain advertisers to change its policy of moderation of its racist content. Several companies announced boycotting social media advertising space in July, forcing social media CEO Mark Zuckerberg to react.
Verizon, Honda, Unilever, Coca Cola, Starbucks … In total, more than 120 companies have already responded to the call for the #Stophateforprofit campaign initiated by anti-racist movements including the Anti-defamation league, a call which aims to boycott the advertising spaces of certain social networks, and in particular Facebook, to force them to better moderate their anti-racist content.
Friday evening, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed a live message to members of his Facebook network. He announced several changes including better control of hate speech and better signaling of potentially problematic political messages.
A response nevertheless deemed insufficient by the organizations at the origin of the movement which call on more companies, especially in Europe, to participate.
According to projections, Facebook could experience a drop in its turnover of 1% in June because of the Covid-19 crisis, more than because of the boycott campaign. A campaign whose impact should not be that great, because the $ 69.7 billion of advertising revenue in 2019 is generated largely by small businesses. The latter cannot really do without this means of communication to reach their audience and therefore cannot participate in such a campaign without risking an impact on their own income.
In a note sent to its advertisers last week, Facebook says it does not “make a policy change on financial pressure” and define its policy “according to principles and not according to commercial interests”.
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