Every Major Company to Leave Facebook So Far
On 5/11/21 at 11:43 AM EDT
Coffee giant Starbucks left Facebook scrambling after the popular chain reportedly threatened to remove its advertising from the platform over frustrations regarding hateful comments left on posts about racial and social justice issues. Starbucks is in the process of evaluating their organic presence on FB, and whether they should continue to have a presence on the platform at all, a Facebook employee wrote to colleagues in internal discussions seen by BuzzFeed News. Anytime they post (organically) in regards to social issues or their mission & values work (e.g. BLM, LGBTQ, sustainability/climate change, etc.) they are overwhelmed by negative/insensitive, hate speech related comments on their posts, the memo added.
A Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing held yesterday had the opportunity to be a reprieve.
In contrast to previous congressional hearings that have been little more than opportunities for legislators to verbally pummel big tech execs, this latest hearing on the impact of social media algorithms was designed to be more substantive, providing insight into how the platforms’ systems work to amplify harmful content. At least that was the aim.
Instead, senators on both sides of the aisle criticized public policy executives from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube about the negative effects of their firms’ data-fueled, advertising-supported business models and questioned whether the sheer scale and dominance of their platforms foster perverse goals inspiring technical decisions that promote engagement with content that ultimately harms people and society. Meanwhile, the platforms’ executives shied away from sharing any fresh insights into how their algorithms operate.
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April 23, 2021
Turns out, some advertisers will walk their talk on behaving ethically to a point.
Sure, we’ve been here before, but CEOs have short memories and people are wising up to that apathy; something had to give. Now, companies are being asked, pressured, forced, encouraged, and regulated to take a stand or at least not stand back on everything from data privacy to voting rights, diversity to sustainability.
Nowhere is this sort of corporate do-goodery more on show currently than in advertising.
Responsible spending seems to be more important than ever if the agency pitches are anything to go by. In February, for example, GroupM joined the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) a voluntary coalition of over 70 organizations set up to highlight the ethics that underpin advertising. Of course, there’s a chance this could all be window dressing given how often brand purpose tends to look like propaganda. For all the strongly-worded warnings from marketers, there
Not So Safe
Eighty percent of the more than 3.3 billion pieces of content removed from social media platforms – including Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and Snapchat – is either spam, adult or explicit content, or hate speech, according to a new report from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). The data in the report – GARM’s first on digital brand safety – was self-reported, Research Live reports. And Ad Age points out there are still gaps in reporting on topics such as how safe the digital platforms are for consumers and advertisers, and how effective they are at policing themselves and correcting mistakes. GARM began working more closely with all the platforms following the political and social upheaval in 2020, and the brand boycott of Facebook, which was prompted by concerns over hate speech and disinformation.