Could the Facebook boycott help put a nail in the coffin of populism?
Mark Zuckerberg, one of the richest men in the world, looks a worried man these days. This month, his company, Facebook, is up against what could be the most important boycott by advertisers in history. The original call launched by several American civil rights associations and titled “Stop Hate For Profit” has already been joined by companies such as The North Face, Patagonia, Verizon, Unilever, Ford or Pepsi, while others, like Coca-Cola and Microsoft have put their advertising on social networks on hold for the moment. Zuckerberg has already apologized and promised changes, but the problem is we’ve heard it all before: internally, the founder has reportedly said that “Facebook is not gonna change” and told staff that he “expects advertisers to return soon enough”.
Contrary to what many people think, the boycott is not specifically about Donald Trump encouraging violence and hate speech, which other social networks, such as Twitter, have responded to. Instead, the boycott is about longstanding issues. Social networks are supposed to be a public forum where a wide range of thinking, news and ideas are shared at very different levels. The problem is that most have descended to the level of the gutter and are simply a space for trading insults, fake news and conspiracy theories.
