After being launched earlier this month, the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign is now being taken global.
Organizers of the Facebook Inc advertising boycott campaign, which has already got support form a growing number of major businesses and companies, are now getting ready to appeal to European companies to join the campaign. The aim of the campaign was to put pressure on the social media company Facebook to quickly remove all hate speech form its platform, the largest social media platform of the world in terms of active daily users.
Jim Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, said in an interview with Reuters that more than 160 companies, including Verizon Communications and Unilever Plc, have pledged to stop purchasing ads on Facebook for the month of July.
After the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police, the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign was started by Free Press and Common Sense, along with U.S. civil rights groups Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League.
“The next frontier is global pressure,” Steyer said. The organizers of the campaign are hope full that with the spreading of the campaign in Europe, regulators there will be emboldened to take a harder stance on Facebook. A set of new guidelines for tech companies, including Facebook was implemented by the European Commission in June according to which, the tech companies would have to submit monthly reports about the companies are tackling misinformation about coronavirus.
Large companies all across the world reacted in an unprecedented manner to the public outrage in the United States over the death of Floyd. The impact of the movement has transcended the boundaries of the US. For example, the name of a skin-lightening product popular in India called Fair and Lovely has been changed by Unilever.
As organizers of the campaign continue to urge more US companies to participate in the campaign, it will also be taken global. Major US telecommunications and media companies have been contacted by her to request them to join the campaign, said Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of Free Press.
There was more that the company needs to do to stop spread of hate speech on its platform, said Facebook on Sunday in response to the demands for more action, and added that it is now partnering with civil rights groups and experts in order to create and develop more tools that can help to address the issue of hate speech on its platform. The company is now able to identify 90 per cent of hate speech before users report it with the use of artificial intelligence, Facebook said.
While a larger slice of Facebook’s advertisement revenues would be cut off after the expansion of the campaign outside the United States, it is not likely to have any significant impact on the finances of the company. For example, all US spending on Facebook for the rest of the year was announced by Unilever on Friday. However, according to Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners, a media and tech research firm, that amount is just about 10 per cent of the overall money that the company spends on advertising on Facebook annually.
Major advertisers on Facebook such as Unilever and Honda, that have only pledged to stop US advertisement spends, will be urged to stop advertisements on the social media platform globally, Steyer said.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Organizers of the Facebook Inc advertising boycott campaign, which has already got support form a growing number of major businesses and companies, are now getting ready to appeal to European companies to join the campaign. The aim of the campaign was to put pressure on the social media company Facebook to quickly remove all hate speech form its platform, the largest social media platform of the world in terms of active daily users.
Jim Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, said in an interview with Reuters that more than 160 companies, including Verizon Communications and Unilever Plc, have pledged to stop purchasing ads on Facebook for the month of July.
After the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police, the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign was started by Free Press and Common Sense, along with U.S. civil rights groups Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League.
“The next frontier is global pressure,” Steyer said. The organizers of the campaign are hope full that with the spreading of the campaign in Europe, regulators there will be emboldened to take a harder stance on Facebook. A set of new guidelines for tech companies, including Facebook was implemented by the European Commission in June according to which, the tech companies would have to submit monthly reports about the companies are tackling misinformation about coronavirus.
Large companies all across the world reacted in an unprecedented manner to the public outrage in the United States over the death of Floyd. The impact of the movement has transcended the boundaries of the US. For example, the name of a skin-lightening product popular in India called Fair and Lovely has been changed by Unilever.
As organizers of the campaign continue to urge more US companies to participate in the campaign, it will also be taken global. Major US telecommunications and media companies have been contacted by her to request them to join the campaign, said Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of Free Press.
There was more that the company needs to do to stop spread of hate speech on its platform, said Facebook on Sunday in response to the demands for more action, and added that it is now partnering with civil rights groups and experts in order to create and develop more tools that can help to address the issue of hate speech on its platform. The company is now able to identify 90 per cent of hate speech before users report it with the use of artificial intelligence, Facebook said.
While a larger slice of Facebook’s advertisement revenues would be cut off after the expansion of the campaign outside the United States, it is not likely to have any significant impact on the finances of the company. For example, all US spending on Facebook for the rest of the year was announced by Unilever on Friday. However, according to Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners, a media and tech research firm, that amount is just about 10 per cent of the overall money that the company spends on advertising on Facebook annually.
Major advertisers on Facebook such as Unilever and Honda, that have only pledged to stop US advertisement spends, will be urged to stop advertisements on the social media platform globally, Steyer said.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
