Major brands are suspending their advertising on Facebook properties as part of a coordinated campaign to pressure the social media giant into changing several of its content policies.
Axios Re:Cap digs in with Chris Miller, head of activism strategy at Ben & Jerry's, which was one of the first companies to hit pause.
Microsoft suspended its advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. in May and recently expanded that to a global pause, according to an internal chat transcript seen by Axios.
Between the lines: Unlike the many advertisers who recently joined a Facebook boycott, Microsoft is concerned about where its ads are shown, not Facebook's policies. But the move still means yet another big advertiser is not spending on Facebook right now.
Twitch, the live-streaming service owned by Amazon, said Monday it issued a temporary suspension of President Trump’s channel "for comments made on stream," but that "the offending content has been removed," according to a spokesperson.
Why it matters: It's the latest major tech company to take action against one of the president's accounts for hate speech or conduct.
Reddit says it is banning its controversial subreddit channel r/The_Donald, one of the company's largest political communities and a longstanding hub of support for President Trump, along with 2,000 other subreddit groups and users that violate new content policies aimed at hate speech.
Why it matters: Reddit becomes the latest social media platform, in the wake of George Floyd's death and the ensuing protests, to take action against Trump or his supporters for violating rules or misleading users.
The Indian government announced Monday it would ban 59 apps developed by Chinese firms, citing national security and privacy concerns.
Why it matters: The applications blocked include ByteDance’s TikTok, a massively popular short-form video app that has come under scrutiny in the U.S. and elsewhere amid growing concerns about Chinese technological threats. India is TikTok's largest market, according to TechCrunch.
Tech insiders on Twitter last week were fed a dose of their industry's own marketing medicine by an impromptu group of young tech workers who stumbled into what they called a "hype cycle."
What happened: The group of about 60 mostly twenty-somethings began tweeting "👁👄👁" as a lark, along with the phrase “it is what it is," and then linked to an email signup form that appeared to be for a secretive invite-only app launch. When signs-ups reached about 30,000 email addresses, they began encouraging donations to organizations helping Black Americans and selling merchandise.
The Madison Avenue boycott against Facebook has quickly grown into a worldwide movement against the content moderation policies of social media giants.
Why it matters: The initial Facebook boycott among advertisers, prompted by Facebook's refusal to fact-check a post by President Trump, has hit a nerve amongst people outside of the marketing community, who think boycotting social media advertising altogether could help to create a healthier internet.
