Learning that Facebook is being boycotted sounds like something impossible to happen. But that’s what is going on right at this moment.
It was learned today that Starbucks, the coffee shop giant, joins the group of companies that decided to pull their ads from the social media platform. This decision is made because Facebook hasn’t done enough to halt or prevent hate speech on its website. Other companies such as Eddie Bauer, Upwork, Ben & Jerry’s, Levi’s, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, have pulled their ads from Facebook, too. Many rather small announcers have also stopped publishing their advertisement.
This move from clients has caused Facebook shares to drop significantly. Some calculations place the loss at around $60 billion. Nevertheless, the effect of the boycott has not been devastating on the company yet. It is important to consider that social media platforms live from ad publication. Nobody knows the final outcome of this situation or if this withdrawal of advertisement might have a snow ball effect shortly and put the company in dire straits.
Facebook says that their decision on not preventing hate speech on their website stems from their belief that free speech is paramount, and all voices should be heard. There were comments on the media today about Facebook inserting warning messages for readers to know that some content could have sensitive messages connected with hate speech.
Some observers believe that this boycott will take place for a short time because advertisers know that Facebook is the digital place where people are by the billions, but this decision is impacting Facebook’s image negatively.
Users on Twitter has been calling for a boycott, also. Many twits are encouraging people to deactivate their Facebook accounts temporarily. They also promote the use of the hashtag #StopHateForProfit
What are your thoughts about this situation? Should Facebook moderate all the content and filter potentially hateful messages? Should all voices be heard? Comment down below.
