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As the corporate meltdown in the wake of George Floyd’s death continues, add popular outdoor gear company North Face to those prostrating themselves before the false altar of “systemic racism.”
How so?
Ironically, North Face is pulling its ads from Facebook — which has been accused by conservatives for years of suppressing conservative content — in support of charges by an activist group that Zuckerberg & Co. promote… wait for it… “white supremacy.” No, really.
North Face on Friday tweeted a link to the group, Stop Hate For Profit, announcing that it was “in” with the group and “out” with Facebook.
Claiming “tech companies are not doing enough to fight hate on their digital social platforms,” and that they “must stop Hate for Profit,” the group called on corporations to “join the fight.”
We’re in. We’re Out @Facebook #StopHateForProfit
Learn more: https://t.co/uAT7u7mjBG https://t.co/jVxTIH5ThQ
— The North Face (@thenorthface) June 19, 2020
And join the fight North Face did, including in its tweet a tweet from NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson, who accused Zuckerberg and Facebook of promoting “irreversible damage to our democracy.”
It is clear that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent in the spread of misinformation, despite the irreversible damage to our democracy. Such actions will upend the integrity of our elections as we head into 2020.
The activist group spells out on its website what “Facebook did.”
We know what Facebook did.
They allowed incitement to violence against protesters fighting for racial justice in America in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and so many others.
They named Breitbart News a “trusted news source” and made The Daily Caller a “fact checker” despite both publications having records of working with known white nationalists.
They turned a blind eye to blatant voter suppression on their platform.
Could they protect and support Black users? Could they call out Holocaust denial as hate? Could they help get out the vote?
They absolutely could. But they are actively choosing not to do so. 99% of Facebook’s $70 billion is made through advertising.
Who will advertisers stand with?
Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.
Please join us.
As a result, reports AP, groups in the campaign charge Facebook with “amplifying” white supremacy and “allowing posts that incite violence.”
Groups in the campaign say Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn’t stop “bad actors using the platform to do harm.”
The groups in the #StopHateforProfit campaign, launched Wednesday, include the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.
[…]
They want to apply public pressure on Facebook to “stop generating ad revenue from hateful content, provide more support to people who are targets of racism and hate, and to increase safety for private groups on the platform.”
It’s been a rough month for Zuckerberg, who in late May responded to employee protests over his refusal to remove posts by President Donald Trump that suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.
In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg said, in part:
I’ve been struggling with how to respond to the President’s tweets and posts all day. Personally, I have a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.
This moment calls for unity and calmness, and we need empathy for the people and communities who are hurting. We need to come together as a country to pursue justice and break this cycle. But I’m responsible for reacting not just in my personal capacity but as the leader of an institution committed to free expression.
I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies.
Zuckerberg explained that he decided to leave Trump’s posts up “because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force.”
This has been an incredibly tough week after a string of tough weeks. The killing of George Floyd showed yet again that…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Friday, May 29, 2020
The craziness continues, folks.
Still, having personally spent a fair amount of time in “Facebook jail,” ostensibly for posts that didn’t “meet Facebook’s standards,” the idea of a boycott by advertisers because of Zuckerberg & Co.’s support for “white supremacists” brings a wry smile to this conservative’s face.
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