Starbucks, Unilever, and Cola-Cola - leaders in the coffee and tea industries - have joined a growing legion of companies that stopped advertising on social media in an effort to force digital platforms to curb hate speech.
Unilever is the parent company of Lipton Tea. Coca-Cola owns Costa Coffee.
The three companies will at least pause their advertising campaigns on Facebook, Instagram (a Facebook property), and Twitter.
Starbucks emphasized it is not joining a boycott organized by civil rights groups that specifically condemns Facebook's failure to remove hate speech. Instead, this is an independent company move.
"We believe in bringing communities together, both in person and online, and we stand against hate speech," Starbucks said in a statement Sunday. "We believe more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe both business leaders and policymakers need to come together to affect real change. We will pause advertising on all social media platforms while we continue discussions internally, with our media partners and with civil rights organizations in the effort to stop the spread of hate speech."
A #StopHateforProfit campaign created in mid-June by American civil rights groups in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and other African-American people.
“We are actively engaging with all digital platforms to make meaningful change and impact trust and transparency," Unilever said in its statement. "We have made substantial progress, and we acknowledge the efforts of our partners, but there is much more to be done, especially in the areas of divisiveness and hate speech during this polarized election period in the U.S."
The statement continued: "The complexities of the current cultural landscape have placed a renewed responsibility on brands to learn, respond and act to drive a trusted and safe digital ecosystem. Given our Responsibility Framework and the polarized atmosphere in the U.S., we have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S. Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society. We will be monitoring ongoing and will revisit our current position if necessary. We will maintain our total planned media investment in the U.S. by shifting to other media."
Protests against police violence and hate speech following Floyd’s death have extended around the world but social media platforms have struggled to respond. As recently as this week Facebook allowed the President of the United States to retweet racist content.
Facebook has defined several steps it says it will take to combat hate speech ahead of the 2020 presidential election. That has not convinced Unilever, Honda, Verizon and Coca-Cola and many others to resume advertising.