Facebook’s inability to manage hate speech has led to strong user protests and provoked the reaction of major companies, including Coca-Cola and Starbucks, which have decided to suspend every advertising campaign on the popular social networking platform.
After the storm of demonstrations and protests over the unjust death of African American George Floyd in the USA and the immense dimensions of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, many American organizations defending human rights appealed to multinationals to unite and put pressure on Facebook to take measures to limit racist speech.
Specifically, the organizations Anti-Defamation League, NAACP and Color of Change lead the campaign “Stop Hate for Profit”. In their effort to eliminate hate speech, they submitted specific requests to Facebook. For example, they asked Facebook to provide the right to users who become targets of harassment, to be able to communicate directly with an employee and report the situation to them.
Furthermore, they demanded the right to compensation for companies whose advertisements appear next to offensive content. The companies that proceeded to boycott Facebook are already over 400! The boycott will last for a whole month and is expected to cause a big blow to Facebook’s revenue.
