The consumer goods company Unilever no longer wants to place advertisements on Facebook and Twitter for at least this year.
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For reasons, the group referred to hate speech and divisive content on the platforms. For this reason, there will no longer be any Unilever plc advertisements there in 2020, possibly even beyond. This is bad news for Facebook, as the US company generates its sales almost exclusively from advertising. Unilever has already spent more than $ 11.8 million this year on advertising on Facebook and Instagram, according to calculations by the marketing company Pathmatics.
Unilever, whose numerous household brands include Dove soap or Lipton tea, is part of a growing number of companies boycotting Facebook.
Because of the current polarization and the upcoming elections in the US, hate speech must be acted on more, said Luis Di Como, Executive Vice President of Global Media of Unilever, in an interview.
On Facebook and Twitter, no one was available for comment at short notice.
Facebook and Twitter shares under pressure with Unilever decision
The decision by the consumer goods group Unilever to stop advertising on Facebook and Twitter for at least the rest of the year put Facebook’s share under pressure on Friday. By the close of trading, the papers lost 8.32 percent to $ 216.08. The Twitter share fell 7.4 percent to $ 29.05.
Unilever’s decision marks a further escalation in efforts to force changes on Facebook and other platforms. More than 90 companies have now announced their intention to suspend advertising on Facebook since civil rights groups called for the July spending to be deducted from Facebook.
Facebook-CEO Mark Zuckerberg In response, Friday announced further steps to eliminate hateful content in ads, curb false claims about the 2020 US election, and make progress against racist comments.
“We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our platforms secure, and we continually work with outside experts to review and update our policies,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement to MarketWatch. “We know we have more work to do and we will continue to work with civil rights groups and other experts to develop more tools, technologies and strategies to continue this struggle.”
By Suzanne Vranica
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)
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