Advertising Boycott Likely To Continue As Civil Rights Groups And Facebook Fail To Make Progress At Talks

Talks held Tuesday between civil rights groups and Facebook Inc FB did not yield results, increasing the likelihood that the advertising boycott campaign targeting the social media giant will continue beyond July.

What Happened

The meeting between Facebook and the civil rights group took place over Zoom Video Communications Inc’s ZM app and lasted a little over an hour, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook was represented by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, product chief Chris Cox, and other policy team members. 

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, a group against anti-Semitic speech, said after the call, “today we saw little and heard just about nothing.”

Rashad Robinson, the head of Color of Change, a progressive civil rights advocacy group, said, “Facebook had our demands in multiple ways, and they showed up to the meeting expecting an A for attendance.”

Facebook said in a statement in response, “they want Facebook to be free of hate speech and so do we.” 

The company pointed out that it had invested billions of dollars in content moderation. 

Why It Matters 

Organizations such as Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League are spearheading the “Stop Hate For Profit” advertising boycott campaign against Facebook.

The campaign is demanding Facebook curb hate, violence, and anti-semitism on its platforms. 

Companies supporting the boycott or those that have halted social media advertising include Starbucks Corporation, SBUX Coca Cola Co, KO Verizon Communications Inc VZ

Facebook has said it is ready to label posts by politicians and is also open to an external audit of its hate speech controls. 

Price Action 

Facebook shares traded 0.62% lower at $239.37 in the after-hours session on Tuesday. The shares had closed the regular session 0.24% higher at 240.86.