FB too far for North
Clothing brand pulls ads until policies are stricter
Athletic clothing brand North Face on Friday became the first high-profile advertiser to announce a boycott of Facebook’s ad platform.
Retweeting a post from the NAACP that called Facebook “no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent in the spread of misinformation, despite the irreversible damage to our democracy,” North Face said it was done advertising on Facebook, using the hashtag #StopHateForProfit.
A North Face spokesperson said the company would be “halting all US paid advertising with Facebook until stricter policies are put in place to stop racist, violent or hateful content and misinformation from circulating on the platform.”
Facebook this week has been targeted by civil rights groups that have taken aim at its revenue-generating ad network in retaliation for what they say is Facebook’s failure to do enough about hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
Neither Facebook nor The North Face immediately replied to The Post’s request for comment.
The North Face’s move comes a day after New Yorkbased
ad agency 360i encouraged clients to pull their Facebook spending for July in support of civil rights groups’ call for an advertising boycott of the company.
The ad firm — which has worked with Ben & Jerry’s, Oreo and United Airlines — told clients in an e-mail that it
“believes any social platform that earns profits by amplifying the voices of their community must have a zero tolerance policy for hate.”
“It is no longer enough to be on a path to addressing this or merely celebrating the considerable gains made over the last year or so,” the firm said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has endured relentless criticism in recent weeks for his decision to not flag President Trump’s post about the George Floyd protests, in which he said “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” as glorifying violence — a move that has received fierce backlash from thousands of Facebook employees.
Last week, Zuckerberg reiterated that he disagreed with the president’s words, but gave no indication that he would be willing to change his mind.
In a response to a letter from the hundreds of scientists funded by his Chan Zuckerberg Initiative charity urging him to tamp down on misinformation, Zuckerberg said he was “deeply shaken and disgusted by President Trump’s divisive and incendiary rhetoric at a time when our nation so desperately needs unity.”
Facebook shares closed up 1.2 percent, at $238.79.