MANILA, Philippines – US news site Axios reported on Tuesday, June 30, Philippine time, that Microsoft had suspended its advertising on Facebook and Instagram, but said that it had done so back in May – some time before the Facebook ad boycott gained momentum in late June. 

The report is based on an internal chat script seen by the news site, confirmed to be true by a source. 

According to the report, however, unlike the companies joining the boycott now, Microsoft’s decision to pull its ads are not explicitly due to Facebook’s policies but rather about where its ads are shown or the kinds of content that their ads appear next to. The report says Microsoft didn’t mention specific content but it cited “inappropriate content” examples such as “hate speech, pornography, terrorist content, etc.” 

“Based on concerns we had back in May, we suspended all media spending on Facebook/Instagram in the US and we’ve subsequently suspended all spending on Facebook/Instagram worldwide,” Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela said on the Microsoft-owned enterprise social network, Yammer. Capossela was  responding to a question by an employee. 

The pause will likely continue through August, and their return will be dependent on “the positive actions [Facebook] takes.” 

The report also said that Microsoft is more interested in having a dialogue with its media partners rather than publicizing their media spend strategy, and that in the past, it had temporarily suspended YouTube spending too before eventually returning. – Rappler.com