Publications
Partners
- The #StopHateForProfit campaign is calling for some of the world’s largest corporations to pause advertising on Facebook during the month of July 2020.
- Vans is calling for Facebook Inc. to take clear and unequivocal action to curb hate speech and misinformation on their platforms.
- Their profits will not support platforms that willingly accept hate, bigotry, racism and violence.
Reuters reported earlier this week that ads for more than 400 brands, including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish from Facebook as of Wednesday, after the failure of last-ditch talks to stop a boycott over hate speech on the site. Sources told Reuters that Facebook offered no new details about how they would tackle hate speech, and instead, pointed back to recent press releases.
US social movement groups started the #StopHateForProfit campaign after George Floyd’s death. The news of the boycott has reportedly already battered Facebook shares, wiping billions off its market value.
Global action sports youth brand is one of the major brands taking a stand against hate speech and misinformation on the social network. The campaign is a response to Facebook’s long history of allowing racist, violent and verifiably false content to run rampant on its platform.
Vans, announced that that they will pull ad investment from Facebook and Instagram for the month of July. The brand commits to diverting their advertising investment to support Black communities through empowerment and education programs, and expand the brand’s support of racial equality and access initiatives.
“We remain committed to our responsibility to do more in the fight against racial inequality,” said Nick Street, vice president of global integrated marketing at Vans. “Our decision to join the #StopHateForProfitcampaign demonstrates just one of the ways we are working diligently, thoughtfully and continuously to becoming anti-racist in everything we do.”
Additionally, Vans will divert the cost of retail store window displays in the United States and Canada throughout July to uplift and empower the Black community.
Image supplied by The Bread
“As a brand founded in the belief we are a people company, supporting our communities has always lived at the core of everything we do,” said Carly Gomez, vice president of marketing, Americas at Vans. “Instead of building window displays for our U.S. and Canada stores, we will use this money to support initiatives that reinforce that Black Lives Matter and that matter is the minimum.”
The campaign will organise corporate and public pressure to demand Facebook 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, among other measures.
These are the specific Vans Demands
1. More accountability and visibility into the measures Facebook is implementing to moderate and label confirmed/unconfirmed facts and information.
2. Process for proactively monitoring, identifying and banning private groups that serve as spaces of hate and destruction.
Visit Vans.eu/empower to learn more about what commitments Vans is making to help combat hate and racial discrimination.
Additional information and images provided by The Bread
Follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Sign up to W24’s newsletters so you don't miss out on any of our stories and giveaway.
