Sony PlayStation joins Facebook ad boycott

San Francisco, July 3 (IANS) Sony Playstation has joined over 400 advertisers who have decided to pull out ads from Facebook and Instagram over its failure to curb hate speech and misinformation.

The #StopHateForProfit boycott has more than 400 participants and the civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League on June 17, are now calling for a global expansion of Facebook ad boycott.

“In support of the #StopHateForProfit campaign, we have globally suspended our Facebook and Instagram activity, including advertising and non-paid content, until the end of July,” PlayStation said in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz on Thursday.

As hundreds of companies halt advertising on Facebook and Instagram, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is confident the brands would soon return on the platform.

According to a report in The Information, Zuckerberg told employees he was reluctant to bow to the threats of a growing ad boycott, saying “my guess is that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough.”

The social networking giant said it was getting better at removing harmful content and that the platform does not in any way profit from hate speech.

The call to boycott ads on Facebook started after the social networking giant decided to allow controversial posts by US President Donald Trump to stay up.

American food company Chobani, drug maker Pfizer and software major SAP were among the latest brands pulling who joined Coca Cola, adidas, cleaning supply firm Clorox, Conagra (the maker of Slim Jim, Duncan Hines and Pam), fast food chain Denny’s, Ford and Starbucks to pull their ads from the platform.

Facebook’s digital advertising accounted for over 98 per cent of the company’s nearly $70 billion in revenue last year.

–IANS

na/