The North Face Joins Advertising Boycott Against Facebook
Written by SOURCE on June 20, 2020
The North Face has become one of the biggest brands to join the latest advertising boycott against Facebook due to the company’s inaction towards Donald Trump’s racist, inflammatory and violence-inciting posts on their platforms.
“We’re in. We’re Out,” North Face tweeted on their official account on Friday afternoon in response to a tweet with a quote from NAACP President Derrick Johnson. In the quote, Johnson cited Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s negligence and complacency in regard to the spread of misinformation.
#StopHateForProfit is an initiative that was started on Wednesday by civil rights groups like the NAACP and Anti-Defamation League that calls for brands to stop running advertising on Facebook for the month of July.
“The North Face is halting all activity and U.S. paid advertising with Facebook until stricter policies are put in place to stop racist, violent or hateful content and misinformation from circulating on the platform,” a statement released by North Face following their decision said.
Carolyn Everson, VP Global Business Group Facebook, expounded upon that statement as well, telling CNN Business more about what they plan to do. “We deeply respect any brand’s decision and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information,” she said. “Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, together, we can be a force for good.”
On May 29, President Trump tweeted some notably vile lines in regards to protests happening across the country in the wake of George Floyd‘s murder. One of those lines was: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” which has been attributed to a 1967 order by segregationist Miami Police Chief Walter Headley.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg later explained the companies decision in only censoring the tweet, rather than deleting it completely, in a lengthy Facebook post.
“We looked very closely at the post that discussed the protests in Minnesota to evaluate whether it violated our policies,” he said. “Although the post had a troubling historical reference, we decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force. Our policy around incitement of violence allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.”
It’s still unclear whether Zuckerberg will decide to delete the tweets.
