Exclusive: Facebook ad boycott campaign to go global, organizers say

Organizers of a Facebook Inc (FB.O) advertising boycott campaign that has drawn support from a rapidly expanding list of major companies are now preparing to take the battle global to increase pressure on the social media company to remove hate speech.

The”Stop Hate for Gain” effort will start calling on important firms in Europe to join the boycott,” Jim Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, said in an interview with Reuters on Saturday.

Since the campaign started earlier this month, over 160 companies, such as Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Unilever Plc (ULVR.L), have signed to quit purchasing advertisements on the world’s biggest social networking platform to the month of July.

Free Press and Common Sense, Combined with U.S. civil rights groups Shade of Change and the Anti-Defamation League, Started the campaign after the Passing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man Murdered by Minneapolis police.

“The next frontier is international strain,” Steyer said, including the campaign expects to embolden authorities in Europe to have a tougher position on Facebook.

The European Commission in June announced new recommendations for technology firms such as Facebook to publish annual reports on how they’re tackling coronavirus misinformation.

The outrage from the USA on the death of Floyd has resulted in an unprecedented response from companies around the globe. Its effect was felt outside U.S. boundaries. Unilever, by way of instance, changed the title of a skin-lightening merchandise popular in India known as Fair and Lovely.

The worldwide effort will continue as organizers continue to advocate greater U.S. businesses to participate. Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of Free Press, said that she has contacted important U.S. telecommunications and media businesses to ask them to join the effort.

Responding to demands for more action, Facebook on Sunday confessed it’s more work to do and can be teaming up with civil rights groups and specialists to develop more resources to fight hate language.
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Facebook stated its origins in artificial intelligence have let it find 90 percent of hate speech before users report it.

Expanding the effort away from the USA will require a larger slice from Facebook’s advertising revenue but isn’t probably have significant financial effect.

Unilever, for example, on Friday dedicated to pausing its U.S. spending Facebook for the remainder of the year.

That accounts for approximately 10 percent of its total estimated $250 million it spends on Facebook marketing annually, based on Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners, a tech and media research company.

Steyer said that they will advocate global advertisers like Unilever and Honda, which were just dedicated to distributing U.S. advertisements, to pull their Facebook advertising globally.

Annually, Facebook generates $70 billion in marketing revenue and roughly a quarter of it comes in large companies including Unilever with the huge majority of its earnings derived from small companies.

However, the publicity about its hate speech policies have hurt its own perception and inventory. On Friday, Facebook’s 8.3% decrease in stock price wiped out $56 billion in market capitalization.
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The renewed push to advocate more businesses beyond the United States to combine shows the amount of frustration felt by social justice groups and the businesses that support them Facebook’s lack of activity misinformation and hate language, Steyer said.

He and Gonzalez stated Facebook’s attempts on Friday to present new steps to prohibit ads and tag hate speech from politicians to support boycotters dropped short of their effort’s demands.

“If they believe that they are done dependent on Friday, they’re sorely mistaken,” Gonzalez explained. “We do not require a one-off coverage and there. We want comprehensive coverage.”