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The Walt Disney Company has reportedly joined the long list of companies that are pushing Facebook to get its platform under control. A Saturday report in the Wall Street Journalreveals that Disney has "dramatically slashed" its ad spending on Facebook Inc. (including Instagram, which Facebook owns).
This is coming from "people familiar with the matter" rather than a named source, so bear that in mind. But it's hard to overlook the implications of a high-profile and widely beloved company like Disney taking this kind of action.
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As the same WSJreport notes, citing data from the research firm Pathmetrics, Disney has been Facebook's top advertiser in the U.S. during the first half of 2020. So while plenty of other major companies have already made similar moves – including Starbucks, Verizon, and Microsoft – this still represents a major blow to the social network.
For weeks, groups like the NAACP and ADL, as well the Stop Hate For Profit movement, have encouraged businesses of all sizes to hit Facebook where it actually hurts: the company's bottom line. It's part of an effort to push the platform toward changing what has largely been a hands-off attitude when it comes to policing posts and user behavior.
"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," the Stop Hate For Profit mission statement reads.
"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."
Facebook's July meeting with the boycott organizers didn't go well, and its own self-imposed audit painted the picture of a dysfunctional company that's made a series of "vexing and heartbreaking decisions." But to its credit, there are also signs that the company is stepping toward change.
Earlier in July, the company moved to shut down a network of hatemongers with ties to the Proud Boys hate group and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone. In a corresponding move, Stone's Instagram account was also shut down. Facebook is also looking at a blackout on political ads in the days before November's U.S. election (though this move is a bit more questionable).
Most recently, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg openly criticized the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic during a Facebook Live Q&A with Anthony Fauci. Though that, too, is a little bit open to question since Zuckerberg failed to own Facebook's own role in reinforcing the same misinformation that Trump and his adherents have repeatedly endorsed.
SEE ALSO: Facebook’s own audit scorches the company for 'significant setbacks for civil rights'The newly reported Disney pause apparently applies specifically to ad spending around Disney+, the company's heavily hyped streaming service that launched in late 2019. Ads were also paused for Hulu on Instagram, and the report goes on to note that "other divisions of Disney are also re-examining their advertising on Facebook." Ads for ABC and the Freeform cable network "have all but vanished from the site."
With Disney apparently having done all of this quietly, we have to allow for the possibility that this reduced ad spending has as much or more to do with the relative paucity of upcoming TV and movie releases in the midst of a global pandemic. But even though Disney opted to not comment on the WSJreport, it's telling that Facebook did, with the company acknowledging: "We know we have more work to do."
Topics Activism Disney Facebook Social Good