Reading lesson: Stop Hate for Profit

Stop Hate For Profit

A Warning Sign for Social Media Giants?

An online group calling itself “Stop Hate For Profit” has taken a big bite out of the market value of Facebook and Twitter. They are calling on advertisers to halt advertising with these dominating social media companies until they change their practices. In particular, the group wants sites to be stricter in how they review and allow posts of hate speech and misinformation. The value of Facebook’s stock declined by eight percent last Friday as megacorporation Unilever stopped its support. This was followed by major brands such as Starbucks and Coca Cola saying they would pause spending on the social media platform. Facebook’s value has dramatically lost around $60 billion.

The Stop Hate For Profit campaign started on June the 17th by civil rights groups and non-profit allies. They are hoping to get social media platforms to address problems and biases in the way they moderate content and posts. They are calling for a boycott and asked advertisers to, “hit pause on hate”. They said: “We are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice and not advertise on [these] services in July.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded with a series of new policies and rules, claiming to ban hateful content and posts that make false claims about voting.