Ben & Jerry's announced this week that it will be suspending its paid ads on Facebook as part of a larger campaign aiming to hold the social media giant accountable and do more to remove hate speech from its platform.
The ice cream company issued a statement on Tuesday, announcing that it was joining the Stop Hate for Profit initiative, created by organizations like the NAACP, Color of Change, and the ADL, which is "calling for Facebook to take stronger action to stop its platforms from being used to divide our nation, suppress voters, foment and fan the flames of racism and violence, and undermine our democracy" and encouraging companies to pull their ads for the month of July.
Ben & Jerry's statement continued by saying they will stop all paid ads on Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) in the United States as of July 1, joining companies like Patagonia and REI, that have made similar pledges.
"As of July 1st we will pause all paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the United States as part of the #StopHateForProfit campaign," the company's statement concluded. "We call on Facebook, Inc. to take the clear and unequivocal actions called for by the campaign to stop its platform from being used to spread and amplify racism and hate."
The initiative is calling for Facebook to take actions like creating a "threshold of harm on the platform where they will put a target of hate and harassment in touch with a live Facebook employee to help them address their concerns," and for them to release "data from their existing reporting form around identity-based hate."
“We respect any brand’s decision, and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information,” vice president of Facebook’s global business group Carolyn Everson told QZ in statement regarding the campaign.
