MANILA, Philippines – Starbucks announces on Sunday, June 28, US time, that it will “pause advertising on all social media platforms” as they “continue discussions internally, with our media partners, and with civil rights organizations in the effort to stop the spread of hate speech.”

“We believe in bringing communities together, both in person and online, and we stand against hate speech. We believe more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe both business leaders and policy makers need to come together to affect real change,” Starbucks’ short post on its website read. (READ: LIST: Companies boycotting Facebook, supporting #StopHateForProfit)

Starbucks joins the list of companies pulling ad dollars from Facebook. The company will not be officially joining the #StopHateForProfit campaign that got the ad boycott started, and the move will exclude advertising on Google-owned YouTube, according to CNBC. 

Companies have participated in the boycott in various degrees. Like Starbucks, Coca-Cola is pausing social media advertising on all platforms but will not be joining the #StopHateForProfit campaign. Levi’s is also pausing advertising on Facebook while Hershey’s is cutting a third of its ad spending on Facebook-owned platforms. Both have committed to the campaign. Unilever is also committing to the campaign but will also pause advertising on Twitter in addition to Facebook and Instagram.

In 2019, Facebook earned about $70 billion from ad revenues. Advertising revenues make up 98.5% of Facebook’s total revenues. – Rappler.com