Organizers of the Stop Hate For Profit Facebook ad boycott campaign say that their meeting with the social media giant’s executives was disappointing.
The organizers met with Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg on July 7th.
Following the meeting, Jessica Gonzalez, the co-CEO of Free Press and one of the organizers of the campaign, took to Twitter to say she didn’t hear anything during the meeting that convinced the organizers that Facebook was taking any action.
“Instead of committing to a timeline to root out hate and disinformation on Facebook, the company’s leaders delivered the same old talking points to try to placate us without meeting our demands,” she said on Twitter.
Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, echoed this statement and said that the meeting was “a disappointment,” and that the company did not seem ready to address the issue.
Met with Mark Zuckerberg and @Facebook leadership today. It was a disappointment. They have had our demands for years and yet it is abundantly clear that they are not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform.
— Rashad Robinson (@rashadrobinson) July 7, 2020
The organizers of the campaign released a statement saying that “it was abundantly clear in our meeting today that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team is not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform.”
Facebook says the meeting “was an opportunity for us to hear from the campaign organizers and reaffirm our commitment to combating hate on our platform.”
Numerous companies around the world are participating in the ad boycott campaign and promising to stop spending money on Facebook ads in July to pressure the social media giant to crack down on the spread of hate speech and misinformation on the platform.
Several Canadian companies including TekSavvy, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Cineplex, TD, CIBC, BMO and Lululemon are participating in the ad boycott.
Source: Stop Hate for Profit Via: Engadget
