Coca Cola pauses paid advertising on social media for a month, says 'no place for racism'

Amid widespread protest around the world against racism, Beverages major Coca-Cola has decided to pause its paid advertising on all social platforms globally for a period of thirty days. Issuing a statement, the company declared that there is "no place of racism on social media", and therefore, it will reassess its advertising policies.

The statement put out on June 27, stated that the company expects "greater accountability and transparency" from all its social media partners. The statement has been undersigned by the company's Chairman and CEO James Quincey. The statement will take effect from July 1. 

The full statement: 

READ | Hindustan Unilever to stop using 'Fair' in 'Fair & Lovely' brand; HUL issues statement

The move comes days after Hindustan Unilever, announced that it would be dropping the name of its long-standing 'Fair & Lovely' product in order to be more inclusive and would remove the words ‘fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/ lightening’ from its products’ packs and communication.

The protests against racial discrimination were triggered after the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white US cop in Minneapolis. Outraged protesters have been marching and bringing down symbols of racism around the world for more than a month now under the banner of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. While BLM has become violent in a number of places, it continues to gain momentum across the world. 

This has forced the Businesses to scrutinise their platforms and policies with respect to hate speech, discrimination on the basis of colour, etc. It has also brought Facebook under scanner for not taking action against hate speech. Unilever had on last Friday suspended advertising on Facebook and Twitter through at least the end of the year. Other companies like Verizon, The North Face, Honda, Patagonia, Eddie Bauer and Ben and Jerry’s have also paused their advertising on Facebook.

READ | 'Gone With The Wind' is back on HBO Max but with a commentary on racism; Read here

Facebook's campaign against hate speech

As Facebook's stock dropped more than 8 per cent, erasing roughly USD 50 billion from its market valuation, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to its policies around hate speech and voter suppression. The platform has on Friday said that it will flag all "newsworthy" posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from President Donald Trump.

READ | Fair & Lovely's new name: Here’s what Hindustan Unilever said after removing ‘fair’

The four changes announced by Facebook include Providing Authoritative Information on Voting During the Pandemic, Additional Steps to Fight Voter Suppression, Creating a Higher Standard for Hateful Content in Ads, and Labeling Newsworthy Content. 

Facebook and Zuckerberg have been criticised for not take effective action against hate speech, racist posts, paid political advertisements with hyper targetting users, etc. Facebook has also been pulled up after Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm based in London, used user data to target voters during the 2016 US Presidential elections.

READ | Facebook announces measures to deal with hate speech, misinformation and voter suppression