Beyond Facebook: Orgs Audit Behavior of Connected Firms
Facebook suddenly faced a boycott of its advertising by leading companies during July due to their dissatisfaction with Facebook’s efforts to police misinformation and hate speech. More than 1,000 companies reduced or pulled their advertising entirely, among them Unilever, Starbucks, adidas, HP, and CocaCola.
Companies have long been concerned about their advertising appearing alongside content that is racist, sexist or homophobic. Before the emergence of electronic platforms, advertising buyers had long been concerned with a company’s ads appearing in certain venues, though this typically focused on print media with sexual content, think Playboy Magazine, or more extreme political content.
But this boycott is different; it is a collective action which sought to pressure Facebook to change its basic policies and practices. The boycott spread rapidly and the companies began to look at other platforms on which they advertise. Six weeks after the explosive start of the boycott, some companies are trickling back and others are asking whether the boycott has been effective. Facebook has taken what some consider token steps to control objectionable content but its actions fall far short of what was demanded.
Furthermore, both consumers and a company’s own employees today are more likely to pressure a company to withhold its business from companies that are perceived to be guilty of misconduct. Similarly, companies are being asked to boycott cities and states with laws perceived to be anti-LGBTQ or with monuments to racial prejudice.
Companies have some experience evaluating the social policies of businesses they do business with. The campaign to clean up human rights abuses, employment practices, and environmental problems in companies’ supply chains is two decades old. Companies have become increasingly sophisticated and diligent at evaluating the social record of suppliers and subcontractors, and auditing their ongoing performance. More generally companies have increasingly conducted “risk assessments” of third parties they do business with, fearing their corrupt behavior will inevitably touch the companies which hired them.
This new and expanded social obligation to police one’s business partners is not going to go away. Companies must examine their business ties whenever they undertake major new relationships or whenever significant scandals emerge.
And policing electronic platforms beings special problems. The platforms and their practices change so rapidly that companies need up-to-date information on platform policies and how well they are actually implemented.
There is always a company ready to rush in with a new product to help companies make decisions, and this is no exception. IPG Mediabrands, a media planning and buying group which is part of ad-agency giant Interpublic Group, has launched a quarterly report which compares and documents social media platforms’ content policies and practices. This service is designed to help companies and brands match their values to the places they advertise.
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