Have big brands succeeded where many governments had failed? In recent days, several large companies, including the giants Unilever and Coca-Cola, have suspended their advertising budgets on the Facebook social network to force it to better fight against racist or hateful remarks.
The origin of disenchantment
Last week, American civil rights associations, including the powerful National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), called on businesses not to advertising on Facebook for a month. The social network had just included its media partners – an initiative launched to fight against “fake news” – a site close to the far right.
This boycott campaign, dubbed “Stop hate for profit”, “No hate for profit”, points to the 70 billion advertising revenues garnered by Facebook. These associations have renewed their concerns about the meager efforts made by the giant to block racist content or inciting violence.
The context: the Floyd affair and the global mobilization against racism
When George Floyd died on May 25 during his arrest by the Minneapolis police, it was neither the first nor the last time, unfortunately, that the arrest of an African-American caused his death. But this affair set fire to the powder of a shared feeling of deep inequality of opportunity when one is born black.
The demonstrations multiply, the violence of the beginning quickly subsides but the determination of those who shout that “black lives matter”, that the lives of blacks matter, goes far beyond the American borders. Unlike Twitter, Facebook then refused to intervene on controversial messages from Donald Trump, one following the death of George Floyd, the other equating postal voting to electoral fraud. This laissez-faire has been widely criticized, including internally.
This is not the first time that the social network has been targeted: since the scandal of public opinion manipulation campaigns for the 2016 American election broke out in 2018, the policy of laissez-faire of the platform to the two billion users worldwide is regularly singled out.
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream laid the foundation stone
At the height of the demonstrations, American brands had displayed their will to act in favor of racial equality. Others, like Pepsi, have decided to modify some of their products, accused of surfing on ethnic stereotypes. On Wednesday, Ben & Jerry’s decided to stop buying advertising space on Facebook and its Instagram subsidiary. Although bought in 2000 by Unilever, the ice-cream maker has retained its independence and the desire to remain a united and committed company.
The following day, it was the American telecoms giant Verizon and the Californian specialist in technical clothing Patagonia who answered the call to “Stop hate for profit”. The movement was quickly taken over by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who called on other companies to do the same.
On Friday, Unilever announced that it would stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the United States until at least the end of the year. “Brands have a duty to help build a reliable and secure digital ecosystem,” the Anglo-Dutch food and cosmetics giant said in a statement.
