Nuked Verizon is the latest company to join an advertising boycott of Facebook and Instagram, the cell carrier announced Thursday. The boycott is in response to the social media giant’s handling of incendiary posts from President Donald Trump.
A number of digital ad agencies have also begun advising clients on how to participate. One, i360, has publicly expressed support.
Verizon ranked 78th in the list of top Facebook adverisers for the period between May 22 and June 20th, 2020. According to marketing analytics company pathmatics, Verizon spent nearly $ 1.5 million on Facebook and nearly $ 500,000 on Instagram.
pathmatics said Verizon spent $ 1,460,300 in ads between 5/22-6/20. The firm said Verizon was the 78th largest advertiser on FB in that period.
The company’s vice president of its global business group says Facebook is having ongoing conversations with advertisers about how to be a’force for good’.’we respect any brand’s decision, and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information,’ she said.
The companies participating, including Verizon, say they intend to pull ads throughout July, but to resume purchasing placement on Facebook. Verizon gave no concrete reasoning for the move.
The letter is part of the ADL’s broader boycott effort, called hit pause on hate. It is designed to penalize Facebook for its inaction and try and influence the company to change its policies.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has maintained a hardline stance around allowing Trump’s speech to remain untouched. Trump has called for violence against protestors and other forms of state force.
Facebook has taken measures in the past month to address the controversy. The company recently removed Trump campaign ads containing Nazi imagery. Zuckerberg has spoken at length in public statements about his decision-making.
Twitter initially labeled the Tweet version of the video’manipulated media’ because it falsely claimed to show CNN maliciously editing a video it never ran. But both platforms removed the video after a copyright claim was filed by one of the parents of the toddlers featured in the clip.
