Facebook Advertisement Boycott

The Australian government in Canberra announced on Sunday that it will no longer run ads on Facebook. The announcement came at the launch of Australia's vaccination campaign against the coronavirus. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government would advertise vaccinations on the internet, just not on Facebook.

The dispute is triggered by a planned law to regulate the digital news market. The bill had been passed by the Australian lower house last week. The Senate is scheduled to vote on it by the end of this week.

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of companies and brands have joined the Facebook ad boycott #StopHateForProfit. On Tuesday, civil rights groups met virtually with Facebook executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to discuss the platform's handling of hate speech. Among the groups attending where the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change.

Leaders of the civil rights groups have stated that the meeting was "very disappointing," with the head of Color of Change, Rashad Robinson saying: "They showed up to the meeting expecting an A for attendance. Attending alone is not enough."

Facebook issued a statement, promising to take steps to "keep hate off of our platform" and that they were aware that they would be "judged by our actions not by our words and are grateful to these groups and many others for their continued engagement."

More and more companies are joining the #StopHateForProfit movement to boycott Facebook over its hate speech policies. Over the past days, numerous brands have announced they would stop advertising on Facebook platforms, including Lego, Pepsi, Henkel, Volkswagen Group, Target, Chobani, Vans, Puma and Mars Inc.

Ford, Adidas and Clorox have joined a growing list of companies pausing social media advertising to take action against hate speech. Ford will not advertise on either Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter in the U.S. for the next 30 days. Clorox is pausing advertising globally on all Facebook-owned platforms until the end of the year, Adidas through July.

Starbucks has announced to halt advertising on "all social media platforms", though the company is not joining the #StopHateForProfit boycott campaign. The coffeehouse chain further stated it would hold "discussions internally and with media partners and civil rights organizations to stop the spread of hate speech" but would continue to post on social media platforms without paid promotion.

"We believe in bringing communities together, both in person and online, and we stand against hate speech," so the company in a statement on Sunday. "We believe more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe both business leaders and policy makers need to come together to affect real change."

Multinational consumer goods company Unilever announced it would halt advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S. for the rest of 2020. The company's portfolio includes brands like Ben & Jerry's, Dove and Axe.

Unilever's EVP of Global Media Luis Di Como said in a statement: "Given our Responsibility Framework and the polarized atmosphere in the U.S., we have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S."

Verizon has joined companies like Ben & Jerry's, North Face, Pangolia and others in boycotting Facebook and Instagram as a marketing platform. With more and more companies joining in "Stop the Hate for Profit", the campaign is gathering momentum. The companies have voiced concerns over Facebook's policies and inaction regarding the handling of posts with hateful language, namely posts from the United States President Donald Trump.