What is #StopHateForProfit campaign and how will it impact Facebook?

Team Udayavani, Sep 22, 2020, 11:28 AM IST

Facebook’s main purpose was to bring the world closer and give people power to build a community but nowadays, it has been acting in ways that are in direct contravention to its purpose, and in fact has contributed to sowing division and discord in the world

Recently, Many celebrities are freezing their Facebook and Instagram accounts in solidarity with #StopHateForProfit. The campaign is meant to shed light on Facebook’s history of allowing hate speech and misinformation to spread on its platforms

Stop Hate For Profit is an initiative started by nine civil rights equality organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and the NAACP.

It is an ongoing campaign to hold social media companies accountable for hate on their platforms.

High-profile users including Kim Kardashian, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Kerry Washington, and Mark Ruffalo are vowing to freeze their Facebook and Instagram accounts for the day as part of the coalition’s week of action.

However, according to The Conversation, Even with the hundreds of companies that signed up and big names like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Diageo and Unilever on board, the likelihood of this bringing about significant changes at Facebook is still slim.

The report states that In order to put real pressure on Facebook to change its content moderation policies, there must be an unparalleled level of unity across the advertising world. This includes ad agencies as well as the advertisers themselves. While the content of ads tends to be created by advertising agencies in conjunction with the companies that are being advertised, the location of where these ads appears is mostly decided by the ad agency.

Hence, advertising without agencies joining the boycott in large numbers, there is very little that the campaign will be able to achieve.

On the other hand, Small businesses make up the vast majority of Facebook’s revenue. They really value the platform because they can target their customers much more precisely, at a reasonable cost

These businesses are strapped on cash amid Covid-19 and they may also see this boycott as an opportunity to actually increase their footprint on Facebook and Instagram.