Microsoft to suspend advertising on Facebook, Instagram: Report

San Francisco, June 30 (IANS) Microsoft which spent more than $115 million on Facebook ads last year is reportedly pausing advertising on both Facebook and Instagram.

According to a report in Axios on Tuesday, the Windows maker is concerned about ads running alongside “inappropriate content” such as hate speech and pornography.

The software giant, however, has not announced its participation in the broader ad boycott campaign joined by over 100 brands.

Microsoft had suspended its advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the US in May.

“Microsoft is concerned about where its ads are shown, not Facebook’s policies. But the move still means yet another big advertiser is not spending on Facebook right now,” said the report citing internal Microsoft posts.

Microsoft was yet to make the move official.

“Based on concerns we had back in May we suspended all media spending on Facebook/Instagram in the US and we’ve subsequently suspended all spending on Facebook/Instagram worldwide,” Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela reportedly said in an internal post on enterprise social network Yammer.

“The timeline on resuming our media spending is dependent on the positive actions they take, but I expect our pause will continue through August,” Capossela added.

Microsoft earlier paused spending on Google’s YouTube over similar concerns.

–IANS

na/