(JTA) — Reforms announced by Facebook have failed to stem a growing boycott against the social network’s policies on hate speech. Several major brands have joined a rising number of companies that have pledged not to advertise on the platform.
Starbucks is the latest large corporation to join the boycott, following the lead of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Hershey and nearly 100 other companies. The Anti-Defamation League, NAACP and several other civil rights groups announced the boycott on June 17, calling on companies to pause their advertising on Facebook for the month of July.
Protesting the company’s unwillingness to police hate speech or monitor posts for misinformation, the campaign points to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s repeated refusal to moderate posts for misinformation, even as extremists have used the platform to incite to violence.
Facebook makes nearly its entire $70 billion in annual revenue through advertising — and the boycott appears to have hurt its bottom line. The firm’s stock, listed as FB on the Nasdaq exchange, has fallen 8% over the past several days through Monday morning.
The list of companies has continued to rise despite Zuckerberg’s attempt to address the complaints.
On Friday, Facebook announced that it would place warnings on posts that break its rules regarding hate or misinformation but still considers newsworthy. It will also ban a wider variety of hateful posts, according to NPR, and will post links to “authoritative information” on posts concerning voting.
But the boycott organizers are demanding much broader changes how Facebook monitors, responds to and reports posts. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted Friday that Facebook’s new policies amount to “small changes that don’t adequately address hate & misinformation.”
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