Vancouver firms join campaign against Facebook
Small and large companies are flexing their economic muscles to curb dissemination of hate speech
The heads of two Vancouver communications companies will be calling on others in their industry to join an advertising boycott of Facebook.
Finch Media principal Kylie McMullan and Nixey Communications principal Paul Nixey say in a commentary on Straight.com that they are competitors in a small market. But they also selfidentify as allies of the Black Lives Matter campaign. So they’ve “partnered” to join the #StopHateForProfit campaign, which was launched on June 17 by Color of Change, the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, Sleeping Giants, Free Press, and Common Sense Media.
The campaign aims to persuade companies to “Hit Pause on Hate” by refusing to place advertisements on Facebook’s platform until it introduces substantial reforms to curb hate speech and voter suppression.
“Facebook refuses to moderate hate speech,” McMullan and Nixey wrote. “Facebook refuses to moderate antiBlack racism. The company refuses to stop misinformation, and it’s time to put an end to it with our dollars.”
They claim to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising on Facebook in the past.
Larger Vancouver companies—such as lululemon athletica, MEC, and Arc’teryx— have also promised not to advertise on Facebook. Others who’ve made this pledge include such multinationals as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Honda. Another multinational, Unilever, has declared that it won’t advertise on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter until at least the end of the year.
“Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society,” Unilever said on June 26, when Facebook shares fell more than 10 percent. “We will be monitoring ongoing and will revisit our current position if necessary. We will maintain our total planned media investment in the U.S. by shifting to other media.”
The Stop Hate for Profit coalition has identified 10 things that advertisers should ask Facebook to do, including updating algorithms to stop recommending people to join hate groups.
The movement was launched in response to Facebook allowing hate speech against people demonstrating for justice for police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others.
“From the monetization of hate speech to discrimination in their algorithms to the proliferation of voter suppression to the silencing of Black voices, Facebook has refused to take responsibility for hate, bias, and discrimination growing on their platforms,” Color of Change said in a news release.