Facebook 'Baekgi' Also Spreads Advertising Boycott... Starbucks Joins In

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Facebook is facing its biggest crisis as advertisers' 'boycott' movement spreads. Although it announced measures to block hate speech after neglecting violent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, more than 160 companies have declared boycotts so far.

On the 28th (local time), according to Bloomberg News and others, Starbucks announced in a statement that it would stop advertising on social networking services (SNS), including Facebook. Starbucks said the decision to halt advertising was to prevent the spread of public hate speech against specific groups and that it would conduct related discussions with private human rights organizations. Although Facebook was not directly mentioned, the move is interpreted as a response to recent controversies surrounding Facebook's handling of posts.

So far, more than 160 companies have joined the Facebook boycott. The list includes clothing company The North Face, automobile manufacturer Honda, cosmetics company Unilever, and telecommunications company Verizon. Beverage company Coca-Cola and liquor company Diageo also previously declared boycotts. Bloomberg stated, "The expansion of Facebook's advertising exodus signifies a greater risk to revenue growth," forecasting a bleak outlook for future sales. Reflecting this anxiety, Facebook's stock price plummeted by 8.3% on the 26th.

However, there are claims that it is unclear how much of a real threat the boycott movement poses to Facebook's operations. Fox News questioned the effectiveness of the boycott by citing Unilever, a cosmetics company that decided to stop advertising to Facebook's U.S. users for the remainder of this year. Considering Facebook's advertising revenue was around $70 billion last year, this represents only a portion of total revenue.

The problem is that the boycott movement is gaining momentum. The civic group leading this boycott campaign, "Stop Funding Hate," announced plans to expand advertising targeting not only U.S. consumers but also consumers worldwide, including Europe. Given that anti-racism protests started in the U.S. and spread globally, it is possible that the boycott will also take place outside the U.S.

This situation arose after fierce criticism followed Facebook's decision not to delete President Trump's post, which caused controversy during last month's anti-racism protests. At that time, President Trump posted, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," and Twitter immediately blocked the post citing 'glorification of violence.' However, Facebook took no action. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated, "Our position is to allow as much expression as possible unless it causes specific harm."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.