Verizon joins ad boycott of Facebook over hateful content

Verizon is joining an escalating movement to siphon vertising away from Facebook in an effort to pressure company into doing more to prevent racist and violent information from being shared on its social networking service.

decision anunced Thursday by one of world’s biggest telecommunications companies is part of an boycott organized by civil rights and or vocacy groups under rallying cry of “#StopHateforProfit.” protest, spurred by last month’s killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, is supposed to last through July.

“We have strict content policies in place and have zero tolerance when y are breached, we take action," New York-based Verizon said in a statement. “We’re pausing our vertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable."

Verizon ted that it has previously stopped vertising at or popular online destinations, such as Google's YouTube video service, when it has felt its promotions might appear alongside content inconsistent with company's values.

In its own statement, Facebook executive Carolyn Everson said company respected Verizon's decision and remains committed to purging hateful content from its services.

“Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, toger, we can be a force for good," said Everson, vice president of Facebook's global business group.

Or vertisers who have pledged to stay off Facebook and or company services such as Instagram include

Common Sense, one of boycott organizers, said or companies who have agree to “pause” ir Facebook vertising include retailer Eddie Bauer, web browser maker Mozilla and and a movie studio, Maglia Pictures.

boycott, in ory, could pinch Facebook's profits since company makes most of its money from s targeted at interests that more than 2 billion people share on its various services. Investors, so far, don't appear worried about that, though.

Shares in company based in Menlo Park, California, hit an all-time high $245.19 earlier this week and haven't fallen dramatically. stock closed Thursday at $235.68.