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TechnologyJul 08, 2020
Diamond Foundry Among Those Boycotting Facebook
Hundreds of companies have halted advertising on the social media site to protest its lack of policing hate speech and misinformation.
Diamond Foundry said it will hold off on spending marketing dollars for its lab-grown stones on Facebook and Instagram. (Image courtesy Diamond Foundry Facebook page)
New York—Hundreds of companies are boycotting Facebook advertising over how the popular social media platform handles—or, rather, doesn’t—hate speech and misleading content, and the Diamond Foundry is among them.
The recent movement against the social media giant started with the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign, backed by such groups as Color of Change, the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP.
It asks companies to stand against hate speech and misinformation spread on Facebook by pulling their advertising dollars from the site.
About 99 percent of Facebook’s revenue stems from advertising.
The company has come under fire before for not taking a stronger stance on moderating or labeling questionable content, particularly Russian-backed ads in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
The recent protests against police brutality and racism seem to be taking the criticism up a notch, with Stop Hate for Profits writing on its website: “Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.”
More than 400 companies have vowed to pull their marketing dollars from the site, including major corporations like The Coca-Cola Company, Adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, Dunkin’, Ford and Unilever.
In late June, San Francisco-based Diamond Foundry confirmed in a statement on its Facebook page that it would join them, pulling ads for its lab-grown diamonds from both Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram.
Last month, Facebook Vice President for Public Affairs Nick Clegg told CNN he disagreed with the reason behind the protest, arguing Facebook doesn’t benefit from the hate speech on its platform.
He also said the site removes about 3 million posts deemed to be hate speech each month.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, recently announced an expanded policy to crack down on voter suppression and hate speech on Facebook, including banning ads that target minorities or immigrants, labeling newsworthy posts that violate its policies, and labeling all voting-related posts and ads that contain links to authoritative information.
Still, for Hate for Profit, the moves aren’t enough.
“None of this will be vetted or verified—or make a dent in the problem on the largest social media platform on the planet,” the groups behind it said in a statement.
“We have been down this road before with Facebook. They have made apologies in the past. They have taken meager steps after each catastrophe where their platform played a part. But this has to end now.”
Facebook leaders
met with the groups behind the campaign Tuesday, a meeting which the latter called “disappointing,” according to several reports.
The coalition said the leadership gave them a “PR spin” rather than any meaningful solutions and noted the social media site hadn’t met any of its 10 demands for change.
The Facebook ad boycott is slated to run through the month of July.
The coalition said the leadership gave them a “PR spin” rather than any meaningful solutions and noted the social media site hadn’t met any of its 10 demands for change.
The Facebook ad boycott is slated to run through the month of July.
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