In an attempt to halt the growing number of companies that are pulling their advertisements from its platform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be meeting with the organizers of the recently massive global boycott campaign. Since the campaign was launched last month, more than 400 brands have pulled their ads from Facebook's platform, resulting in billions of dollars of lost ad revenue for the company.
The Stop Hate For Profit campaign was organized by several civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, with the aim of forcing Facebook to step up its efforts in removing hate speech and fake news from its platform. Major brands such as Coca-Cola, Levi's, Lego, Unilever, and Starbucks, have so far joined the campaign to pressure Facebook to amend its policies amid the worldwide fervor to rid the internet of hate and racism.
Earlier in the week, Zuckerberg had revealed several measures aimed at curbing hate speech and fake news on its website. However, organizers of the campaign claimed that the company's efforts were simply insufficient. Facebook announced plans of expanding its definition of hate speech to include posts and ads that discriminate against other demographics. The company also offered to properly label election-related posts to avoid confusion.
The public outcry over its tolerance of hate speech on its platform sent Facebook's share prices tumbling last week and earlier in the week. The decline resulted in a combined loss of more than $60 billion in the company's market valuation.
On Tuesday, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that Zuckerberg will be attending a meeting with the organizers of the boycott campaign. The company had previously sent several executives to at least two other meetings. Unfortunately, the talks reportedly broke down after organizers were unconvinced of the measures proposed by the company's executives.
According to sources familiar with the meetings, the organizers have set 10 specific demands, which include the immediate removal of public and private groups involved in white supremacy, anti-Semitism, violence, climate denialism, Holocaust denialism, and COVID-19 related fake news.
While Facebook had reportedly agreed to some of the demands, other demands such as the issuance of refunds to brands whose ads showed up next to offensive posts were deemed unacceptable. During the meetings, Facebook reportedly agreed to submit itself to an audit of its hate speech regulations.
Following the failed talks, organizers demanded that Zuckerberg be present at the next meeting as he is apparently the "ultimate authority" that will make the final decisions for the company.
