Facebook Ad Boycott Ushers in a ‘New Era’ of ‘Corporate Activism’

In its eight years as a public company, Facebook has weathered its fair share of storms. But a growing ad boycott, dubbed the #StopHateForProfit campaign, might be the toughest one yet for the social media giant and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Led by civil rights groups like the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League in response to Facebook’s moderation policies, dozens of major companies have already joined the boycott, including Honda, Levi Strauss, Pfizer and Unilever. Other major companies like Adidas and Microsoft — Facebook’s third biggest advertiser last year — have also paused advertising on Facebook, without formally joining the #StopHateForProfit movement. Zuckerberg, looking to quell concerns over incendiary posts and ads, has agreed to meet with the civil rights groups leading the boycott, Facebook said on Wednesday. This isn’t the first high-profile corporate boycott. Nike has been called out in the past for its working conditions in Vietnam; PETA led a boycott of KFC for its treatment of animals; and BP faced a boycott after its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, just to name a few. The difference with the Facebook ad boycott, however, is that it is led by other large corporations and not spearheaded from...

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