Facebook Reverses, Will Ban “Hate Speech” Ads After Consumer Goods Giant Unilever Joins Growing Boycott

CNBC reports:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said the company will change its policies to prohibit hate speech in its advertisements. Under its new policies, Facebook will ban ads that claim people from a specific race, ethnicity, nationality, caste, gender, sexual orientation or immigration origin are a threat to the physical safety or health of anyone else, Zuckerberg said.

“I am committed to making sure Facebook remains a place where people can use their voice to discuss important issues,” Zuckerberg said. “But I also stand against hate or anything that incites violences or suppresses voting, and we’re committed to removing that content too, no matter where it comes from.”

Additionally, Zuckerberg said Facebook will do more to protect immigrants, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from ads that suggest they are inferior to other groups of people or from ads that express contempt, dismissal or disgust directed at them.

CBS News reports:



Unilever says it will stop advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at least until the rest of the year, joining a number of companies that have pulled ads from Facebook over the social network’s failure to police racist and violent information.

“Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society,” the consumer goods giant said in a statement Friday. It added that there was much more work to be done in the areas of hate speech and political polarization in the U.S.

“The complexities of the current cultural landscape have placed a renewed responsibility on brands to learn, respond and act to drive a trusted and safe digital ecosystem,” the company said, adding it would shift its planned spending to other media.