Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said in a post on the company's official website that the soft drink giant is suspending its advertising on all social media for at least 30 days, starting July 1. This move by Coca-Cola is part of a broader boycott of Facebook and Instagram, organized by the NAACP, the most important organization for the defense of African Americans, Color Of Change, ADL (Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization), FreePress and Sleeping Giants, in a campaign called "Stop Hate For Profit". However, because Coca Cola is stopping any promotional activity not only on Facebook and Instagram but also on other social media, its decision will also affect Twitter, YouTube and other platforms.
Specifically, Quincey said that Coca-Cola will try to reassess its advertising standards and policies during this period to determine whether internal reviews are needed, while assessing what more it should expect from its social media partners in order to get rid of hate, violence and inappropriate content platforms . He also added that Coca-Cola will inform popular platforms that it expects greater accountability, action and transparency from them, as, as he said, there is no place for racism either in the world or on social media. Unilever and Verizon made the same move before Coca-Cola. In addition, the multinational drinks company “Diageo” said that it will suspend paid advertising on major social media platforms worldwide, starting July 1.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergannounced a series of policy changes to his platform that, while not explicitly addressing the boycott, appear to be designed to address much of the criticism the company has received over the past year over its failure to moderate violence, threats, hate speech and misinformation. The backlash has been sparked by posts shared by US President DonaldTrump and other controversial accounts and pages on the platform.
The nonprofit Color of Change, along with its partners including the ADL and NAACP, launched the campaign on June 17, and so far more than 100 brands, including Coca-Cola, have joined. Color of Change President Rashad Robinson said Friday that chocolate brand Hershey's is also joining the boycott.
A Facebook spokesperson told The Verge that the company invests billions of dollars each year to keep its community safe and is constantly working with external experts to review its policies. He also said that Facebook has opened up its civil rights review and has banned 250 “white” organizations from Facebook and Instagram. Its investments in AI mean it finds nearly 90 percent of hate speech before users report it, and according to a recent EU, Facebook reviews more hate speech reports in 24 hours than Twitter and YouTube. The Facebook spokesperson also noted that the tech giant is working with civil rights groups, GARM, and other experts to develop more tools, technologies, and policies to continue this fight.
The campaign launched last week, with the participation of popular sports brands such as “The North Face” and “Patagonia”. Also, this campaign was supported by the popular ice cream brand “Ben & Jerry” and the film distributor “Magnolia Pictures”. Honda announced that it will also join the campaign and suspend its ads on Facebook and Instagram in July. The “Stop Hate For Profit” campaign, through the newspaper “Los Angeles Times”, calls on all businesses to show solidarity with the deepest American values of freedom, equality and justice and suspend their ads on Facebook in July. Finally, it emphasized that everyone together must send a message to Facebook that their profits will never be worth the promotion of hatred, intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and violence. Coca-Cola and many other well-known brands have already responded to this call and now it remains to be seen what impact this fight will have on popular platforms and their activity.
