Best Buy joins Facebook ad boycott with Adidas, Clorox, others
Ford, Starbucks, Unilever, Pepsi among major brands boycotting Facebook
Best Buy is pausing its ads on Facebook ads for the social media giant's apparent failure to address hate speech.
The retailer is the latest on a growing list of big companies pausing advertising on the platform and its Instagram app for the month of July, Forbes reported, as top civil rights groups call out Facebook and other major corporations for not going far enough to end discrimination across its sites.
"We support what groups like the NAACP and ADL are trying to achieve, and our decision was made on that basis,” a Best Buy spokesperson told FOX Business, confirming the decision.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BBY | BEST BUY CO. INC. | 92.82 | +1.92 | +2.11% |
| FB | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
A civil rights movement that includes the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP launched the #StopHateforProfit campaign in early June, inviting major companies to halt Facebook ads due to its "repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms."
Among the other names joining the boycott are Adidas, Ford, Starbucks and Unilever. Clorox, Patreon, Denny’s and Pepsi have all also declared the same.
Facebook was pointed to in recent days after it initially declined to add a warning label to a post from President Donald Trump that said looting would lead to shooting amid nationwide protests against police brutality and discrimination. The company later announced it would begin to label posts from politicians that violate its policies.
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Facebook said in response to the boycott that it “spends billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and continuously work with outside experts to review and update our policies. We know we have more work to do, and we’ll continue to work with civil rights groups, GARM, and other experts to develop more tools, technology and policies to continue this fight.”
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While shares of the tech giant were up 2 percent Monday, they have been dropping as more companies sign onto the boycott. Shares ended down 8 percent Friday and have dropped 4 percent in the last month, including a near-8 percent slide in the last seven days.