‘No commitment’ to act at Facebook -boycott organizers

Organizers of a Facebook advertising boycott campaign on Tuesday said they saw ‘no commitment to action’ from Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to take concrete steps to block hate speech and misinformation across the platform.

That’s after the social media giant met with leaders from the NAACP, Color of Change, Free Press and others to discuss the growing ‘Stop Hate for Profit campaign’ which calls for companies to pause their Facebook advertising for the month of July.

Coke, Starbucks, Unilever and Adidas are among the hundreds of advertisers which have pulled ad dollars from Facebook.

In a statement, Tuesday, Free Press said quote: “Facebook approached our meeting today like it was nothing more than a PR exercise.”

Facebook responded with its own statement: "We know we will be judged by our actions not by our words and are grateful to these groups and many others for their continued engagement."

The 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign, which was formed in the wake of the death of George Floyd, has outlined 10 changes it wants to see from Facebook, including giving refunds to brands whose ads show up next to offensive content that is later removed.

Color of Change said in the statement that the only recommendation Zuckerberg and Sandberg attempted to address in the meeting was establishing a civil rights position within the company, but they would not commit to making it a senior executive job or defining the role.

It also said Facebook provided no details on an independent hate speech audit it has discussed with advertisers.

But in a Tuesday Facebook post, Sandberg said the final report would be published on Wednesday.