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Unilever Boycotts Facebook and Twitter by Pulling All Ads Until 2021, Citing Divisive Content

The corporate giant said it would boycott the social media platforms due to hate speech and polarized politics in the U.S.

Mega consumer goods company Unilever will pull all U.S. ads from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter until at least 2021 in retaliation for divisive content being allowed to proliferate on the social-media platforms. The British-Dutch company cited hate speech and polarized politics in the U.S. as motivation for the boycott. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society,” the company said in a statement. Unilever owns 400 brands like Dove, Rexona and Lipton tea, and generates around $58 billion revenue annually. A handful of large companies, including Verizon, have announced similar boycotts in recent days.

Facebook responded by saying it spends billions of dollars each year on monitoring content and its AI detects around 90 percent of removable hate speech before users report it. “We know we have more work to do,” the company said in a statement.