The Coca-Cola Company announced the suspension of all digital ads on social media platforms worldwide for a period of at least 30 days starting from July 1, the soda giant announced Friday evening.
The move is part of a broader boycott of Facebook and Instagram, organized by the Anti-Defamation League, Color Change Association, the National Association for the Advancement of People of Color (NAACP), and other organizations called the "Stop Hate Profit" campaign (#StopHateForProfit).
Coca-Cola joins this ad with only about 100 brands announcing withdrawing their ads from Facebook for next July or longer as part of the Stop Hate for Profit movement. This movement protested "Facebook's repeated failure to address the widespread spread of hate on its platforms."
Coca-Cola does not exclude anyone
The Coca-Cola Company is moving one step further than some of those companies, as it prohibits all ads globally on social media platforms, not just Facebook and Instagram. This indicates that the boycott will hit Twitter, YouTube and other platforms as well.
"As of July 1, Coca-Cola Company will temporarily suspend paid advertisements on all social media platforms worldwide for a period of at least 30 days," said a statement issued by Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy posted on the brand's website. .
"During this time, we will reassess our advertising standards and policies to determine whether internal reviews are required, and what we should expect from our social media partners to get rid of hate platforms, violence and inappropriate content. We will teach them that we expect more accountability, action and transparency."
The cry of "Stop hate for profit"
Earlier, Unilever, the international detergent company, joined Verizon as the two largest companies involved in the province before Coca-Cola.
Since Color of Change and its partners launched the boycott campaign - "Stop Hate Profit" - on June 17, more than 100 brands have joined the boycott. President of "Color Change" Rashad Robinson said on Friday that the Hershey chocolate brand will also join the boycott.
Facebook acquiesces and changes its policy
"The company will change its policies to prevent hate speech in its ads," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, and the social media giant has announced that it is making a series of policy changes to spread and monitor hateful and inflammatory content.
Facebook did not explicitly mention that the change in policy came in response to the boycott, but rather that it was an attempt to address many of the criticisms the company recently faced about its lack of moderation in violent threats, hate speech and misinformation published by President Donald Trump and controversial accounts and pages.
Zuckerberg said, "The new Facebook policies will prohibit ads that claim that people of race, nationality, nationality, class, sex, sexual orientation, or origin pose a threat to the physical safety or health of any other person."
"I am committed to making sure that Facebook remains a place where people can use their voice to discuss important issues," Zuckerberg added. "But I also stand against hate speech or anything that incites violence or suppresses voting, and we are committed to removing this content as well, regardless of its source."
In addition, Zuckerberg said, "Facebook will do more to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from advertisements that indicate they are inferior to other groups of people, or from ads that express contempt, ostracism, or loathing against them." Zuckerberg did not address the provinces directly against Facebook.