Facebook will bar more hateful content in ads as boycott picks up steam

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg streamed an internal town hall live on Friday.

Screenshot by Queenie Wong / CNET

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said on Friday that the social network will begin labeling content that it believes is current but would violate its rules. Facebook will also block a wider category of hateful content in ads. This happens when Coca-Cola, Honda, and other major brands protest social media ads.

The labeling of the social network does not apply to content that suppress voting or encourage violence. Facebook said that these will be removed even if they come from politicians. Twitter, a competing social network, has added announcements Tweets from President Donald Trump that violates his rules for glorifying violence.

Facebook will also block ads that claim that people of certain racial or ethnic groups are endangering the physical safety, health, or survival of others. It also prohibits advertisements that express contempt, dismissal or disgust for immigrants and refugees, or suggest that they are somehow inferior.

“We want to do more here to ban the kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric used to sow discord,” said Zuckerberg in an internal town hall that was broadcast live on Facebook.

The company will attach links to voting posts, including from politicians who refer users to its new ones Voting information center. The links help Facebook to edit more difficult posts where it is unclear whether the user is trying to suppress votes, e.g. For example, the claim that a city has been identified as a COVID-19 hotspot. “This is not a judgment of whether the posts themselves are correct, but we want people to have access to relevant information in both cases,” said Zuckerberg. Facebook said it would also ban posts that make false claims that US immigration and customs officials search immigration papers at polling stations and coordinated threats that affect voting.

Facebook does not send politicians’ posts and advertisements to fact-checkers, a policy that has been criticized by lawmakers, stakeholders, and their own Employees. The new changes don’t fully relate to how Facebook interpreted its rules regarding Trump’s controversial posts. In May, Twitter labeled two Trump tweets that contained false claims about Postal ballot However, Facebook has not taken any action against the same posts on its social network. Facebook found that Trump was having a political debate about mail-in voting and was not directly preventing people from voting. Twitter also added another note to Trump’s tweets, responding to police protests against the death of George Floyd’s murder by saying, “When the looting begins, the shots begin.” Twitter found the post violated its rules against the glorification of violence, but Facebook said the statements did not violate its policies, as Trump referred the National Guard and the company read it as a warning against the use of state violence.

Facebook was under pressure to do more about misinformation and hate speech from advertisers. The Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Colors of Change, Free Press and Common Sense are calling on companies to stop buying ads on Facebook this month of July. This would put the groups under pressure on Facebook to use their $ 70 billion in annual advertising revenue to support people who are victims of racism and hatred and to increase security for private groups on the website . Consumer goods giant Unilever, Telecommunications company Verizon, the beverage giant Coca-Cola, the ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s (owned by Unilever) and the outdoor clothing brand The North Face are among the most important companies and brands that have joined the # StopHateforProfit campaign.

Despite efforts to combat hate speech, civil rights activists say Facebook has allowed content that could cause violence against protesters who fight for racial justice after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks.

According to the ADL, almost 100 brands have joined the boycott. The groups are asking Facebook to make changes, including creating a separate moderation pipeline for hate speech that allows some people who have been harassed or hated to speak to a live Facebook representative and tell advertisers how often their content is posted alongside posts indicated that Facebook was removed due to misinformation or hate speech.

In a response on its website, the # StopHateforProfit campaign said the changes on Facebook were inadequate.

“We have been on this path with Facebook before. They have apologized in the past,” the statement said. “They took meager steps after every disaster in which their platform played a role. But that has to end now.”

Zuckerberg’s comments did not appear to slow the boycott of the advertisement. After the live stream on Friday, Coca-Cola said that advertising on all social media platforms should be interrupted for at least 30 days.

“There is no place for racism in the world and no place for racism on social media,” said James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, in a statement.