Facebook has managed to piss off just about every single one of the biggest MNC advertisers globally, which make up for the companies bread and butter. Companies have resorted to an ad ban for the platform, for its inefficacy in taking down hate speech and allowing the promulgation of fake news. This move has apparently awakened Facebook to its many faults, which has now announced a review and audit of its hate speech control.
From the last few weeks, Facebook had become the scapegoat of a protest against hate speech on social media platforms, as Mark Zuckerberg kept trying to weasel his way out of the company’s lack of response. However, it looks like Facebook isn’t ready to part with all the advertisement dollars it reels in thanks to its popular ad platform, and has finally given into the demands set by civil rights group across the country (or at least taken the first step in the direction).
The conversation around racial discrimination, and how it has marginalized certain sects of the society, especially the black community, has risen as the biggest topic of the month. Facebook’s inability to move with the times, and take down hate speech (including certain harsh comments from the POTUS) caused massive backlash for the company, which later segue-d into a full blown ad ban. While earlier, small companies like Ben and Jerry’s were the only one to participate, later Verizon, Unilever and Starbucks joined the “Stop Hate for profits” campaign started by U.S. civil rights groups. This has become a major problem for Facebook, which seems to be motivated only by profits these days. Thus, the company has finally agreed to an audit.
However, the job of tweaking its policies cannot be left to Facebook itself, since that hasn’t worked out very well in the past. Thus, Media Rating Council (MRC), a media measurement firm, will be the one getting its hands dirty, and work up an audit, the dates of which are still being discussed ny Facebook.
The company has clearly failed to contain the situation, and is now struggling to keep advertisers on board. Earlier last week Facebook announced that it would label “newsworthy” content that violates its policies, a move which failed to woo the many MNCs which are just tired of the platform’s negligence.
