Digicel only local business to cut Facebook ads
(CNS) Regional and local telecoms company Digicel has said it is stopping its paid advertising on Facebook platforms globally for at least July in a “stand against hate speech online”. However, many other businesses in the Cayman Islands and the region are still using the social media giant despite the global concerns about the platform spreading negative, damaging and even violent messaging.
Jean-Yves Charlier, Digicel Group CEO, said there was no room for the promotion of hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.
“By standing together with the world’s best companies, our hope is that Facebook will be forced to put people above profits and do the right thing to help build a society where all people are respected and valued equally,” he said.
A number of global brands have joined the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign, organised by the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and other organisations, boycotting paid advertising activities on Facebook.
On Tuesday global media reports suggested as many as one-third of Facebook’s advertisers would pause their ads next month and some for the rest of the year because of the company’s failure to meaningfully address the hate proliferated on its platforms.
But here in Cayman, Digicel is the only regular Facebook advertiser to announce that it is joining the boycott.
Many advertisers in Cayman have switched from supporting local media with advertising to using Facebook and other social media platforms. Local media and public relations companies are also encouraging advertisers to use Facebook’s paid for platforms as well as regular posts.
Real estate agents, communication firms, hotels, bars and restaurants, healthcare providers as well as local retailers all use the platform and none of them have indicated they will be pulling their adverts tomorrow.
On Friday evening, in response to the advertising boycott campaign, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will begin banning ads that scapegoat ethnic groups and minorities and will also begin labelling potentially “harmful” posts from public figures. But the announcement has done little to stop the campaign.
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Digicel don’t make me laugh ! Better try pay its outstanding debts talking about facebook have not paid for their last upgrade!
The Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP ARE hate groups! They are not what they used to be nor do they do what they are ostensibly set up to do. They spew hate all day, everyday. One pretends to be pro-Jewish when it is really anti-Arab and anti-Black and the other is supposed to be pro-black but is merely anti-white; the very definition of prejudice.
As a White person, American, I understand that sometimes pro-Black movements can feel anti white and scary, but until you really grasp what blacks have been living through (in the states at least), until you read historical missing slave newspaper ads and cry, before you realize wow!!… we celebrate the 4th of July and have never even heard of Juneteenth, before you watch one more black kid get shot dead for being drunk and think hey, maybe the instant death penalty for being drunk isn’t quite evenly applied across races, I think the world would be better served by us trying to hear and feel what blacks are living and stewing in our uncomfortableness and fear.
Unfortunately, we need look no further than Chicago to see what’s happening. No police involvement. Rampant death over this new years 2020. It sickens me to see these good people being used for an agenda.
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Do you mean those”good people on both sides”?
Rational thought, coherent sentences, genuine empathy, am I really in the CNS comment section? Well said.
People still use Facebook?
yup, we’re old
Yes. It’s the only known form of cancer (besides maybe smoking induced lung) that people actually sign up for.
Will be switching from Digicel then. No interest in pandering to special interest groups and bandwagoners
CNS: Under pressure, Facebook has now, at long last and much too late, banned violent “boogaloo” groups, linked to the murder of a federal security guard and a sheriff’s deputy in the US. The Boogaloos use FB to chat about killing federal agents and how to prepare for civil war in the US. Campaigns to ban such groups is pandering?
Good luck with that. I’ve tried them all (not going to mention the other name) and for me, Digicel is the least bad of the bunch.
CNS is not the moral police. I’ll continue to make my own choices thanks.
CNS: Of course. And other people will continue to have opinions about your moral choices.
As they should.
Clever. Trim your advertising budget when sales are down but getting cred for saying you “care” at the same time.
Just stop reading Facebook, not difficult!
Maybe they could spare us the customer-billed International junk SMS promos while they’re at it. Billing customers for their own ads!
If you have an android, download Google messages, set it as your default SMS app, and block them. I did that with Flow. Got sick of all the spam texts.
Digicel can’t afford to advertise with all the debt the company has.
For those that thumb down read this:
http://mobile.royalgazette.com/news/article/20200519/business-as-usual-for-bankrupt-digicel&template=mobileart