400 Brands To Leave FB Today In Snowballing Boycott

July 1, 2020 Advertising, Social Media

Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish from Facebook on Wednesday, after the failure of last-ditch talks to stop a boycott over hate speech on the site.

U.S. civil rights groups have enlisted the multinationals to help pressure the social media giant into taking concrete steps to block hate speech in the wake of the death of George Floyd and amid a national reckoning over racism.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with the organizers of the boycott, a spokeswoman said late Tuesday. Facebook executives have reached out to chief executives, board members and chief marketing officers of major advertisers to talk them out of the boycott, two people briefed on the discussions told Reuters.

Ford, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Unilever and dozens of other brands have halted advertising on Facebook as criticism intensifies over the company’s handling of racist and hateful rhetoric on the platform.https://t.co/qJ8MbCp3GP

— NPR (@NPR) June 29, 2020