Last week we asked if music’s biggest companies should boycott Facebook – following the news that a number of high-profile brands were pulling ads from the platform as well as from Facebook-owned Instagram.
The catalyst for the boycott was Facebook’s stance on misinformation and hate speech, widely shared by its users during last month’s global Black Lives Matter protest.
Under pressure from the advertiser boycott, on June 26 Facebook revealed new policies to deal with misinformation and hate speech published on its platform.
As reported by the Guardian: “Facebook will now take on an approach similar to that of Twitter, labeling posts that may violate its policies but are allowed to remain on the platform because they are deemed newsworthy.”
That didn’t stop Coca-Cola joining the likes of Unilever and Verizon pulling their ads from Facebook (and, in the case of Coca-Cola and Unilever, from other social media platforms too).
This week, it came to light that gaming giant Sony PlayStation would also be pulling its ads from Facebook and Instagram until the end of July.
As first reported by GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation’s statement said that its month-long Facebook advertising boycott is in support of the #StopHateForProfit campaign.
“In support of the #StopHateForProfit campaign, we have globally suspended our Facebook and Instagram activity, including advertising and non-paid content, until the end of July,” said PlayStation. “We stand for working together for good.”
“We stand for working together for good.”
PlayStation
According to a press release issued on June 17, #StopHateforProfit was launched “in response to Facebook’s repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms”.
The campaign was launched by six organizations, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense, calling on “large Facebook advertisers to show they will not support a company that puts profit over safety.”
#StopHateforProfit calls on “the world’s largest corporations to pause advertising on Facebook during the month of July 2020”.
Hundreds of companies have responded.
In addition to PlayStation, participating companies include Verizon (the biggest telco in the United States), automobile giants like Volkswagen and Ford, not to mention Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive and clothing mega-brands like Levi’s, Adidas, Reebok and Puma.
As far as music companies go? Three appear to be listed.
Firstly, there’s UK-based independent label Cooking Vinyl, which we reported last month was recommending to its artists not to advertise on Facebook and Instagram during the month of July, “pending meaningful action from the social media giant”.
Cooking Vinyl also said that it is “asking all music industry companies and bodies to consider supporting this campaign”.
The other two music companies are British-born record label Anjunabeats, started by producers Jonathan “Jono” Grant and Paavo Siljamäki of Above & Beyond in 2000, and finally, Los-Angeles head quartered punk and rock label Epitaph Records.Music Business Worldwide
