Facebook Boycott: Starbucks Joins Coca-Cola, Unilever, Other Brands to Stop Ads For Inaction Over Hate Speech

San Francisco: American coffee giant Starbucks has announced to pull ads from Facebook and other social media platforms, joining giants like Coca-Cola, Honda, Unilever, Verizon, Hersheys and others who have decided to boycott advertising on Facebook for its inaction over spread of hate speech and disinformation. Also Read – Rolling Stones Warn Donald Trump Not to Use Their Songs at His Election Campaign Rallies

Starbucks said that it believes in bringing communities together, both in-person and online, and stand against hate speech. Also Read – ‘Marr Gaye Toh Full Refund’: Hilarious Video Trolling Baba Ramdev’s ‘COVID-19 Vaccine’ Coronil Breaks Internet

“We believe more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe both business leaders and policymakers need to come together to affect real change,” the company said in a statement on Sunday. Also Read – Facebook to Label ‘Newsworthy’ Posts And Ads That Violate Rules Including President Trump’s

“We will pause advertising on all social media platforms while we continue discussions internally, with our media partners and with civil rights organizations in the effort to stop the spread of hate speech,” it added.

Shares of Facebook plunged more than 8 per cent on last reported trading day on Friday. The social network makes about 98 per cent of its $70 billion annual revenue from advertising.

Alarmed at the rate at which advertisers are pulling out of its platform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday announced the social network will put warning labels on all posts that break its rules but are deemed newsworthy.

Zuckerberg said they will soon start labelling some of the content we leave up because it is deemed newsworthy, so people can know when this is the case.

“Even if a politician or government official says it, if we determine that content may lead to violence or deprive people of their right to vote, we will take that content down,” Zuckerberg said adding that there are no exceptions for “politicians in any of the policies I’m announcing here today”.

Facebook’s decision now opens the door to label controversial posts by US President Donald Trump.

Twitter has already flagged couple of his controversial tweets while Facebook is facing widespread criticism for its inaction over Trump posts that glorified violence in the aftermath of the death of African-American George Floyd.