S’BUCKS ‘SOCIAL’ DIVIDE
Mulling FB exit
Starbucks is reportedly weighing whether to leave Facebook over a deluge of hateful comments the company has gotten in response to its woke posts on the platform.
BuzzFeed News obtained internal Facebook discussions in which employees wrote that Starbucks may take down its Facebook page, which has more than 36 million followers, because the company is so frustrated by the response it’s gotten to its posts about social issues.
“Starbucks is in the process of evaluating their organic presence on FB, and whether they should continue to have a presence on the platform at all,” a Facebook employee wrote to colleagues last week, according to BuzzFeed.
“Anytime they post (organically) in regards to social issues or their mission & values work (e.g. BLM, LGBTQ , sustainability/climate change, etc.) they are overwhelmed by negative/insensitive, hate speech related comments on their posts.”
The employee added that Starbucks has struggled to moderate hateful responses to its posts but is unable to disable comments on the page, BuzzFeed reported.
Starbucks also questioned how the social-media giant’s algorithms moderate or amplify comments on posts, the outlet said, citing an internal Facebook memo.
If Starbucks were to pull its page, the $135 billion company would be among the largest ever to depart the platform.
Representatives for Starbucks did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment. It’s not clear if the company’s concerns extend to Instagram — which is owned by Facebook — or how seriously it’s considering pulling its Facebook account.
In a statement to BuzzFeed, a Starbucks spokesperson said the company stands “against hate speech,” but did not confirm if it is considering removing its Facebook page. “While some changes have been implemented, we believe more can be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities,” the spokesperson told BuzzFeed about Facebook.
“We work collaboratively with all companies we do business with to ensure any advertising done on our behalf is in alignment with our brand standards.”
A Facebook flack said in a statement to The Post that the BuzzFeed article demonstrates how the company works with its partners “to keep hate off of their pages.”
“We don’t want hate on our platform and neither do our partners,” the spokesperson said. “We have invested in technologies to take down hate speech, and we proactively detect 97 percent of what we remove.”