One of the world's largest coffee chains Starbucks has halted advertisements on social media. In a blog post titled "Creating Welcoming and Inclusive Online Communities", the company said that it is against hate speech and will be discussing the matter with its media partners and civil rights organizations to stop hate speech.
Starbucks has also said that apart from YouTube, the company will not do any paid promotions on other social media platforms. It, however, will continue to post on its official accounts.
Starbucks will not be officially taking part in the "Stop Hate for Profit" campaign started by Anti-Defamation League and other organizations. The campaign is against Facebook's moderation policies regarding violent threats, fake news, and hate speech on the platform. and urges companies to stop advertisement on the platform for the upcoming month. Some big names including Uniliver, Verizon, Ben and Jerry's and even Honda have all joined the Stop Hate for Profit Campaign.
Even the popular favorite Coco-Cola company revealed that it will be halting all digital advertisements on every social media platform from July 1st. Another big name for beverages Diageo has done the same.
Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the company will be making a few changes last week in response to the criticisms of the company's policies. Though this was not a direct response to the advertisement boycott it could bring about some much-awaited changes to Facebook.
“Facebook stands for giving people a voice, and that especially means people who have previously not had as much voice or as much power to share their own experiences, it’s really important that we make sure our platforms live up to these principles,” said Zuckerberg.
