A giant takes position. Coca-Cola, one of the most famous brands in the world that spends huge sums on advertising, announced Friday that it would suspend all promotion on all social networks for at least 30 days, because "there is has no place for racism. " A little earlier, Facebook announced timid measures, promising to better regulate hate content, with which advertisers refuse to be associated.
"There is no room for racism in the world and there is no room for racism on social media," said James Quincey, CEO of the global giant, in a very brief statement. He demanded social networks - which other brands have decided to boycott to force them to do more to remove hate content - to demonstrate more "transparency and accountability". Coca-Cola will take advantage of its break to "take stock of (its) advertising strategy and see if revisions are necessary," said Quincey.
Facebook announces shy measures
Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of the global social network, has been defending for months his approach a priori more lax than Twitter or YouTube, especially vis-à-vis the speeches of political figures, in the name of freedom of expression. But on Friday he detailed the hardening of his position himself. The platform will now remove ads that claim that people of certain origins, ethnicities, nationalities, gender or sexual orientation pose a threat to the safety or health of others.
The decision comes as Unilever, the food and cosmetics giant, has just announced that it will stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the United States, at least until the end of the year. .
This weighty name is added to other advertisers - Verizon (telecoms), Honda, Ben & Jerry's (glacier belonging to Unilever), Patagonia, North Face and REI (sporting goods) - who are participating in a boycott campaign from Facebook. It was launched by American civil society organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which accuse the platform of tolerating groups that incite to hatred, racism or violence. Comedian and humorist Sacha Baron Cohen, very critical of the network, called on Friday companies "spending more dollars on Facebook ads" to join the movement. He cites in particular Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Microsoft, Amazon, the New York Times…
Warnings
The second measure taken by the cornered boss directly concerns the incident which set fire to the powder in late May. Unlike Twitter, Facebook had refused to intervene on controversial messages from Donald Trump, one on postal voting (which he considered electoral fraud) and another on the demonstrations and riots that followed George's death. Floyd, an African American suffocated by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Twitter, considering that there was incitement to hatred, had masked these last words of the American president, and reduced their potential circulation, while leaving them available for consultation. Facebook is now moving away from its binary withdrawal or laissez-faire policy, which has been heavily criticized, including internally.
The platform will soon be able to add warnings to problematic publications, but left online in the name of their "interest in being known to the public". "Users will be able to share this content to condemn them (...) but we will warn them that the publications in question potentially violate our rules," said Mark Zuckerberg. Too vague a promise, according to some experts.
By the Web
Facebook removes "hateful" Trump ads that used a Nazi symbol
- By the Web