Seattle companies pull away from Facebook amid criticism of the platform's hate speech moderation

Carolyn Adolph

July 02, 2020 / 5:29 pm

caption: Facebook's head office at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, CA.

Microsoft, Zillow, and Redfin say they are hitting pause on their social media spending.

They are joining more than 700 companies who say they are reconsidering their presence on platforms such as Facebook, where racial hatred and false statements often circulate.

Many companies, including Starbucks and REI, have pulled advertisements from the platform in response to calls that they put action behind their recent statements denouncing racism and police violence.

Anti-hate groups are leading a boycott surrounding the move away from Facebook, and are keeping a list of more than 700 companies they say are supporting it.

Zillow and Redfin are not on that list.

Those companies, however, do say they are pulling back from social media to study its role in transmitting hate speech.

Microsoft is listed as a supporter of the boycott. However, the company says it isn’t part of that particular boycott. Rather, it’s pulling back from Facebook for its own reasons related to hate speech.