The Coca-Cola Company is
taking a hiatus as it won’t be advertising on any of the social media platform globally
for the 30 days starting July. 

This step is part of a
boycott that Instagram and Facebook have organized known as “Stop Hate For Profit.” Coca-cola is actually taking a step ahead by banning all the ads globally on every social media platform, and not just
on Instagram and Facebook. Hence, this ban would include Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube etc.

“Starting
on July 1st, The Coca-Cola Company will pause paid advertising on all social
media platforms globally for at least 30 days. We will take this time to
reassess our advertising standards and policies to determine whether revisions
are needed internally, and what more we should expect of our social media
partners to rid the platforms of hate, violence and inappropriate content. We
will let them know we expect greater accountability, action and transparency
from them.” – Reads a statement from Coca-Cola
Company CEO James Quincey posted to the brand’s website.

Earlier today, the
participation of two of the largest companies was announced –Unilever and
Verizon. Mark Zuckerberg has also announced that certain changes will be
implemented in the policies of Facebook – not directly related to the boycott.
This change of policy has more to do with the criticism that Facebook has been
receiving, lately, in regards to its lack of moderation of violent threats, inaccurate facts, hate speech etc.

“This
continues a significant trend of major brands — including Unilever and Verizon
— committing to pause Facebook ads for at least the month of July. Since Color
Of Change and its partners, including the ADL and NAACP, launched the campaign
on June 17, over 100 brands have signed on.” – Reads the
statement from progressive nonprofit Color of Change, one of the organizers of
the boycott.

Although the boycott
may bring bad press for Instagram and Facebook, but the bottom line is that the
pause on advertising by the major company will negatively impact the revenue of
Facebook.

“We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and
continuously work with outside experts to review and update our policies. We
know we have more work to do, and we’ll continue to work with civil rights
groups, GARM, and other experts to develop even more tools, technology and
policies to continue this fight.” – said the Facebook spokesperson to NBC
News earlier today.

The campaign started
last week and many popular sports as well as outdoor lifestyle brands like Patagonia
took active participation. Mainstream corporate in America have begun making
active contributions as well.

ADL posted an open
letter yesterday:

“Today,
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
Facebook’s services in July. Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your
profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and
violence.”