Hardly a day goes by when Facebook is not in talks for one reason or the other. Just recently, almost a month ago, Facebook faced a major advertiser boycott on the grounds of not taking enough action against hate speech and racial discrimination on its platform. Many major brands took part in this boycott and joined the #StopHateForProfit campaign, and Facebook suffered some financial losses because majority of its revenue is generated from ads.
Now, Facebook is going through another crisis. This time, celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Sacha Baron Cohen, and many more are taking a protest action by ‘freezing’ their Facebook and Instagram accounts because they believe that Facebook should do more to address divisive content rather than just sitting back and doing nothing about it. This is not the first time that Facebook has been accused of facilitating hate, propaganda, and misinformation related content on and through its platform.
Kim Kardashian, who has more than 180 million followers on Instagram has recently posted that despite how both Instagram and Facebook provide her the platform to interact with her fans, and despite her huge fan following, she cannot stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of divisive content, including hate, propaganda, and misinformation. All this content is created by groups that are trying to split America apart and divide its people. She has also accused that steps are only taken when people get killed, not before that. As per Kim, Misinformation shared through these platforms and other social media has a very serious impact on the country’s democracy and the upcoming elections.
By freezing their accounts, these celebrities are trying to send Facebook the message that is in continuation with the #StopHateForProfit campaign. And this protest action can actually have a significant impact on Facebook’s finances.
Millions of users use these platforms to stay connected and in touch with celebrities all over the world, and when there will be no updates from many of the big names from the entertainment industries for an unknown, indefinite period, this could eventually dent Facebook’s popularity on the whole.
In the past also, there are examples of collapsing platforms like Vine and Snapchat when they refused to engage with the top users and top stars from the world. So, Facebook and Instagram may also see a lot of damage if more celebrities join this protest and more action takes place in this regard.
Will any of these actions budge Facebook to amend its stance on its content policies or not? Only time can tell. So far, Facebook has remained quite steadfast and inflexible in its approach and policies.
Read next: Facebook claims to work on providing accurate climate change data by integrating new information center
Now, Facebook is going through another crisis. This time, celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Sacha Baron Cohen, and many more are taking a protest action by ‘freezing’ their Facebook and Instagram accounts because they believe that Facebook should do more to address divisive content rather than just sitting back and doing nothing about it. This is not the first time that Facebook has been accused of facilitating hate, propaganda, and misinformation related content on and through its platform.
Kim Kardashian, who has more than 180 million followers on Instagram has recently posted that despite how both Instagram and Facebook provide her the platform to interact with her fans, and despite her huge fan following, she cannot stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of divisive content, including hate, propaganda, and misinformation. All this content is created by groups that are trying to split America apart and divide its people. She has also accused that steps are only taken when people get killed, not before that. As per Kim, Misinformation shared through these platforms and other social media has a very serious impact on the country’s democracy and the upcoming elections.
By freezing their accounts, these celebrities are trying to send Facebook the message that is in continuation with the #StopHateForProfit campaign. And this protest action can actually have a significant impact on Facebook’s finances.
Millions of users use these platforms to stay connected and in touch with celebrities all over the world, and when there will be no updates from many of the big names from the entertainment industries for an unknown, indefinite period, this could eventually dent Facebook’s popularity on the whole.
In the past also, there are examples of collapsing platforms like Vine and Snapchat when they refused to engage with the top users and top stars from the world. So, Facebook and Instagram may also see a lot of damage if more celebrities join this protest and more action takes place in this regard.
Will any of these actions budge Facebook to amend its stance on its content policies or not? Only time can tell. So far, Facebook has remained quite steadfast and inflexible in its approach and policies.
Read next: Facebook claims to work on providing accurate climate change data by integrating new information center
