Industry News
In a post on Facebook yesterday, Aspen Snowmass, CO announced their support for the #StopHateForProfit campaign by pulling their advertising from the social platform for the month of July.
Aspen Snowmass has long believed that fact-based, civil discourse is critical to finding solutions to the challenges facing our country and the world. We need to engage in dialogue with each other, but there’s a right way to do it, respectful and dignified. That’s why we joined #StopHateForProfit by pulling our advertising on Facebook through July. In response to the movement, started by nonprofits and supported by businesses, Facebook announced changes to reduce hate speech on its platforms. That’s a small start, but we all need to do more. So let’s keep the conversation going, focused on listening and understanding. We aren’t chasing perfection, but we need to commit to real change. It’s taken far too long.
– Aspen Snowmass Facebook
Outdoor industry giants The North Face, Patagonia, and REI were the first to join a number of civil rights groups in their #StopHateForProfit boycott by pulling their advertising from Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram. NPR is reporting that more than 400 companies have joined the boycott.
Six national civil rights groups (the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color of Change, Free Press, and Common Sense) announced the boycott, urging companies to pull advertising from Facebook for July in response to the platform’s reluctance to censor hate speech, reports SNews.
While these companies have joined the boycott for the month of July, some in the industry have gone a step further, removing their ads from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely. Press Forward PR, whose clients include Fischer skis and Swix wax, have vowed to stop Facebook and Instagram spending permanently.
Facebook has been under criticism recently for its content-moderation policies, particularly its handling of posts made by the President following the murder of George Floyd. While no stranger to controversy and subject to repeated campaigns to boycott the social media giant, nothing has yet put a dent in its advertising business. According to Business Insider Facebook generated $17.4-BILLION from ad revenue last quarter alone, which is 98% of its revenue.
Facebook responded to the boycott, saying:
“We deeply respect any brand’s decision and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information. Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, together, we can be a force for good.”
– Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s vice president of global business
