Facebook just lost $ 7.2 billion after major global companies started withdrawing their advertisements from the giant social media network platforms.
The company’s shares fell 8.3 percent, the lowest in three months on Friday. Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers joined other companies boycotting ads on the social media network. Unilever announced that it would stop spending money on Facebook ads this year.
Verizon Communications, Hershey Co and Coca Cola have also joined in the boycott. Coca Cola said it would pause all paid advertising on all social media platforms for a period of 30 days.
The boycott came amid claims that Facebook had done very little to sufficiently put an end to hate speech and disinformation on its platforms.
The campaign dubbed Stop Hate for Profit was organized by the Anti Defamation League, The NAACP and other organizations on June 17th and so far, over 100 brands have signed on.
“Today, we are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice and not advertise on Facebook’s services in July,” read an ad from the Stop Hate For Profit campaign.
“Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, responded to the growing criticism about misinformation on the sites saying Facebook would expand its definition of prohibited hate speech.
We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and continuously work with outside experts to review and update our policies,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
“We know we have more work to do, and we’ll continue to work with civil rights groups and other experts to develop even more tools, technology and policies to continue this fight.”
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