During the summer of this year, the world witnessed one of the most heinous and bigoted incidents to ever have been recorded. The murder of George Floyd, who died in a racially motivated encounter with officers from the Minnesota Police Department. The incident, which resulted in Floyd’s death, was filmed by bystanders and uploaded to various social media platforms where it went viral. The video led to massive protests all over the United States. Numerous Black Lives Matter rallies were held and voices were raised against the systemic racism that has resided in America for far too long. This incident was shocking and eye-opening and several well-known brands like, EA Sports, Netflix, HBO, Warner Bros., and many more spoke out on racism or showed some form of support for the protesters.
This was a rare occurrence as brands usually stay away from speaking on such matters especially if there is such a polarized situation but the corporates showed their utmost support for the African-American community.
Facebook came under fire and was mass boycotted by a great number of advertisers after it mishandled a post from President Trump about the Black Lives Matter protests. Facebook has already been under fire for mishandling posts that spread hate and misinformation and with the nation in an already aggravated state about racism, Facebook was quick to be called out. There always has been a fine eye on Facebook regarding matters like this and rightly so, Facebook has a reach of almost three billion people; that is almost forty-three percent of the total world population. If a social media platform has that type of reach they need to be extremely careful and just about how they curb the spread of hate and misinformation.
Boycotters used the hashtag #StopHateForProfit to post their views about how Facebook should have handled the post instead.
Facebook has been working towards handling posts that contain offensive and wrongful content and has partnered up with several organizations like the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, and according to Facebook's VP of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson, the social network has taken several steps like, improving its brand safety and content monetization guidelines, strengthening their anti-Holocaust-denial policies to improve its image. However, these steps will be ignored if they are unable to adapt to current situations and hide or, at least, reduce the exposure of certain posts by certain biased leaders. This is absolutely vital if Facebook wants to maintain its status as a respectable high-profile social media platform.
This was a rare occurrence as brands usually stay away from speaking on such matters especially if there is such a polarized situation but the corporates showed their utmost support for the African-American community.
Facebook came under fire and was mass boycotted by a great number of advertisers after it mishandled a post from President Trump about the Black Lives Matter protests. Facebook has already been under fire for mishandling posts that spread hate and misinformation and with the nation in an already aggravated state about racism, Facebook was quick to be called out. There always has been a fine eye on Facebook regarding matters like this and rightly so, Facebook has a reach of almost three billion people; that is almost forty-three percent of the total world population. If a social media platform has that type of reach they need to be extremely careful and just about how they curb the spread of hate and misinformation.
Boycotters used the hashtag #StopHateForProfit to post their views about how Facebook should have handled the post instead.
Facebook has been working towards handling posts that contain offensive and wrongful content and has partnered up with several organizations like the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, and according to Facebook's VP of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson, the social network has taken several steps like, improving its brand safety and content monetization guidelines, strengthening their anti-Holocaust-denial policies to improve its image. However, these steps will be ignored if they are unable to adapt to current situations and hide or, at least, reduce the exposure of certain posts by certain biased leaders. This is absolutely vital if Facebook wants to maintain its status as a respectable high-profile social media platform.
