Facebook Sees Growing Ad Boycott

Ford Motor Co., Clorox Co. and Denny’s Corp. are joining a parade of companies that have moved to halt advertising spending on Facebook Inc. because of how the social-media giant has handled speech on its platforms, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Ford said Monday it will suspend its national social-media advertising for 30 days, as it re-evaluates spending on sites. Restaurant chain Denny’s said it is pausing paid advertising on Facebook starting Wednesday.

Clorox—the company behind its namesake cleaning supplies, Kingsford charcoal and other consumer brands—said it is pausing global ad spending on Facebook and Instagram through December. The move is to act against hate speech, “which we believe will increase through the balance of the year,” the company said in a statement.

Civil-rights groups like the NAACP have been pushing advertisers to pull spending from Facebook to protest what they describe as a failure to halt hate speech and misinformation on its platform.

It isn’t immediately clear whether the boycott will take a meaningful toll on business at Facebook, which has the second-largest share of the U.S. digital ad market. Operating chief Sheryl Sandberg said in April that Facebook had 8 million advertisers on its main platform.

In a Monday research note, MKM Partners linked to a spreadsheet that by the evening listed more than 240 companies, organizations and individuals committed to the campaign associated with the hashtag #StopHateForProfit.

The varied approaches companies are taking to pause spending could have a muted impact on Facebook. Some advertisers pledged to pull spending for July, while others are planning longer pauses. In addition some firms are pulling spending on Facebook, but not Facebook-owned Instagram.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company invests billions each year to ensure safety and continuously works with outside experts to review and update its policies.

The company has banned 250 white supremacist organizations from Facebook and Instagram, she said, adding that artificial intelligence allows Facebook to find close to 90% of hate speech before users report it.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the company was making further changes to its platform. On Friday he said Facebook will add labels to certain posts and forbid advertisements that claim specific groups of people pose threats to the physical safety, health or survival of others.