This archive report was first published on 1 July 2020.
As of Wednesday, advertisements for over 400 brands, including Coca-Cola and Starbucks, will no longer appear on Facebook, following the failure of last-ditch talks to stop a boycott over hate speech on the site. The boycott, which began on June 17, 2020, was initiated by U.S. civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, and Color of Change, in response to the death of George Floyd.
Facebook executives, including Carolyn Everson and Neil Potts, held meetings with advertisers on Tuesday, but offered no new details on how they would tackle hate speech. Instead, they referred to recent press releases, which frustrated advertisers who believe those plans do not go far enough.
“It’s simply not moving,” said one executive at a major ad agency of the conversations. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with the organizers of the boycott, a spokeswoman said late Tuesday.
For Facebook, the boycott is unlikely to have a big financial impact, as the top 100 brands on the platform in 2019 likely brought in only 6 per cent of Facebook’s total $70 billion in annual revenue, according to a Morningstar research note citing Pathmatics data.
