Starbucks is the latest big company to rethink advertising on Facebook, announcing Sunday it will stop paying for content across all social media platforms while consulting with civil rights groups and media partners.
“We believe in bringing communities together, both in person and online, and we stand against hate speech,” Starbucks said in a blog post. “We believe more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe both business leaders and policy makers need to come together to affect real change.”
The company says it “will pause advertising on all social media platforms while we continue discussions internally, with our media partners and with civil rights organizations in the effort to stop the spread of hate speech.”
The Seattle-based coffee giant is one of more than 100 companies that are halting their advertising spending on Facebook, though Starbucks isn’t joining the Stop Hate for Profit campaign behind the boycott, according to CNBC.
Facebook is in hot water for what critics say is a failure to police hate speech and content promoting violence, including posts from President Donald Trump. Though Facebook was the initial focus of the boycott, Starbucks’ latest move shows the controversy is spreading to other platforms. Twitter is beginning to take a more hands-on approach to content moderation, flagging some of Trump’s tweets as misleading and sunsetting its political advertising program.
The Stop Hate for Profit campaign is a partnership between the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color of Change, Free Press, and other organizations. They are demanding Facebook notify advertisers when their ads run next to content that was later removed for violating terms of service and provide refunds. The group also wants Facebook to remove groups that promote racism and misinformation and make other changes. REI, Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Limeade, Lululemon, Mozilla, and Patagonia are among the companies that have signed on.
Advertising accounts for 98.5% of Facebook’s revenue, generating more than $69 billion in 2019. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long said it is not appropriate for the company to regulate speech on its platform and has attempted to dodge accusations of political bias from both sides of the aisle. Until now, the criticism has not significantly impacted Facebook’s bottom line but the new wave of advertiser boycotts could change the dynamics for the social media giant.
