Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with some of the groups organising an advertising boycott against the social network. At the same time, he told employees the company was not going to change its policies for the small number of advertisers.
Zuckerberg gave his thoughts on the boycott, which includes large brands like Starbucks, Verizon and Coca-Cola, during a video town hall meeting on 26 June. He said the boycott is more of a "reputational and a partner issue" than an economic one, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by The Information.
He noted that large advertisers participating in the boycott make up a small portion of Facebook’s overall revenue, and he said, "We’re not gonna change our policies or approach on anything because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue, or to any percent of our revenue." He added that "my guess is that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough."
Meanwhile, a Facebook spokesperson told Reuters that Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with the 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign organisers in the coming week. US civil rights groups including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP and Color of Change started the campaign for advertisers to boycott Facebook after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a white police officer last month. The groups have outlined 10 demands for Facebook, including allowing people who experience severe harassment to speak with a Facebook employee and giving refunds to brands whose ads show up next to offensive content that is later removed.
Facebook executives including Carolyn Everson, vice president of global business solutions, and Neil Potts, public policy director, held at least two meetings with advertisers on 30 June, ahead of the one-month boycott taking effect 01 July, three sources who participated in the calls told Reuters. The executives offered no new details on how they would tackle hate speech, the sources said. Instead, they pointed back to recent press releases about Facebook's efforts.
Nick Clegg, the former British MP turned Facebook's VP of Global Affairs and Communications, also published an article in AdAge defending the company's practices. "I want to be unambiguous: Facebook does not profit from hate," he said. While acknowledging that "we may never be able to prevent hate from appearing on Facebook entirely", the company is "getting better at stopping it all the time", Clegg said.
