Unilever will stop advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in the United States for the rest of the year. The reason for the decision, according to the British-Dutch company, is the hateful and racist messages that appear on the platforms.
The consumer goods maker says to the Wall Street Journal that current advertisements are also removed from the social media networks. The boycott applies until at least the end of the year.
With the action, Unilever hopes to compel social media companies to take steps faster to combat the spread of hatred. “Continuing to advertise does not add value to society for now.”
Daughter company Ben & Jerry’s announced two days ago that it will no longer advertise on the platforms in July. Brands like The North Face, Patagonia, Verizon and Eddie Bauer also decided to stop advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter this week.
The boycott by Unilever, one of the largest advertisers in the world, is a blow to the social networks. The consumer goods company is estimated to advertise approximately $ 42.3 million (nearly $ 38 million) per year in Facebook in the United States alone.
Due to the news of the boycotts, the Facebook share fell by 7 percent on Friday.
Call for boycotts
The boycotts seem to be a response to the call by civil rights organizations to stop advertising the social networks in July.
With the hashtag #StopHateForProfit, they stated that companies such as Facebook do too little to remove hateful messages and misleading information. Twitter was not specifically mentioned by them.
Facebook (which also includes Instagram) says in a response to invest billions of dollars annually to keep its platforms safe. However, the company says “there is still a lot of work to be done”.
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