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Facebook lost $72 billion in one week

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Miguel A. Rodriguez
Miguel A. Rodriguez
14 September 2020
Major companies take action against racism and hate speech displayed by Facebook.

For the past week, the giant social media network, Facebook, has been under boycott. To this day, it continues to be, as the company failed in acting against "hateful lies and dangerous propaganda." It all has been started by a group made of Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the NAACP, and it launched the #StopHateforProfit campaign. 

The movement urges significant companies to temporarily stop advertising of Facebook. Over time, it allowed posts against Black Lives Matter protests, not recognizing/removing Holocaust denial, it suppressed widespread voting, and targeted disinformation aimed at Black voters.  

Just in a few days, the group received support from some of the most important companies in the world, companies paying a lot of money for ads on Facebook and Instagram. Though this movement is limited to US territory for now, the organizers are preparing to make the campaign global. 

Companies who joined the boycott

  • Unilever – which paid roughly $42.4 million for advertising last year, which happens to be one of the biggest in the world, will stop ads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram in the US until the end of the year as "advertising on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society. ”
  • Verizon – with approximately $22.9 million, is "pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.”
  • Starbucks –paid around $94.9 million for ads last year decided to pause advertising on all social media platforms, and it will make an effort to stop the spread of hate speech. 
  • Lululemon – $1.6 million- declared solidarity, and announced engagement with Facebook to make a change. 
  • Levi Strauss & Co - $2.8 million – would suspend the ads until the end of July, and revise its decision based on Facebook’s response to the situation. 
  • Honda - $6 million – decided to stand against hate and racism and suspend the ads from Facebook and Instagram during July. 

Coca-Cola - $22.1 - million will stop advertising on social media for at least a month. However, the company is not joining the official boycott.

The company already started to feel the effects of the boycott. As of Friday, Facebook market cap dropped more than 8%, which roughly translates in $72 billion, which is a significant amount given the fact that last year, the total ads revenue was of $102 billion.  From Unilever only, it lost 10%.

Over the weekend, Mark Zuckerberg announced that they would start labeling the content against the company’s policies as the November presidential election approaches. Moreover, they will collaborate with civil rights groups and experts to develop and implement tools against hate speech. 

As of Friday, Facebook stocks fell more than 8%, after losing over the week more than 9%, and during today’s pre-market more than 2.20%.  The 2020 gain is 5.3%, while USA500 fell 6.9%.

Sources: nytimes.com, edition.cnn.com, finance.yahoo.com


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Miguel A. Rodriguez
Miguel A. Rodriguez
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Miguel worked for major financial institutions such as Banco Santander, and Banco Central-Hispano. He is a published author of currency trading books.