North Face, Patagonia, and REI boycott Facebook ads to #StopHateForProfit

The brands are revolting against Facebook.

Well, at least some of them are. Temporarily, that is.

Five companies, ranging from major clothing brands to online job platforms, have pledged to stop advertising on Facebook for the month of July in protest of the company’s response to hate on its platform.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The North Face, REI, Patagonia, and online freelancing website Upwork are a few of the companies who have signed onto the #StopHateForProfit pledge. The campaign was started by civil rights groups including the NAACP and ADL. Sleeping Giants, an activist group that organizes advertiser boycotts against right-wing media, is also involved in the campaign.

“What would you do with $70 billion?” asks the boycott campaign website. “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.”

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The campaign says it’s also organizing the boycott because Facebook named far-right website Breitbart a “trusted news source," and made another right-wing outlet, The Daily Caller, an official fact-checking partner. #StopHateForProfit points out how both sites have previously employed and published the work of white nationalists. The campaign also said the company has turned a “blind eye” to voter suppression.

Facebook has a lengthy history of, at the very least, kowtowing to the far right. The company previously made a distinction between “white supremacists” and “white nationalists” in order to keep the latter on its social media platform. Users on the ideological right often weaponize the platform to share misinformation.

While Facebook has made some changes to curb the spread of extremism and hate on its social network, critics and social justice advocates say it just hasn’t been enough. With the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg most recently going out of his way to excuse President Donald Trump’s inflammatory posts concerning Black Lives Matter protesters, it’s clear that the criticism is warranted.

"Could they protect and support Black users? Could they call out Holocaust denial as hate? Could they help get out the vote?" asks the #StopHateForProfit campaign. "They absolutely could. But they are actively choosing not to do so."

A handful of companies pledging to pause their advertising for a month likely won’t change things. But it’s a start.