Starbucks may close down its Facebook page, according to reports.
The Seattle-based coffee corporation is growing increasingly frustrated with hate speech-related comments it receives on posts about social justice and is now reevaluating whether or not to continue to have a presence on the platform, according to internal discussions between Facebook employees seen by BuzzFeed News.
"Starbucks is in the process of evaluating their organic presence on FB, and whether they should continue to have a presence on the platform at all," one Facebook employee wrote to colleagues who manage the social network’s relationship with Starbucks.
"Anytime they post (organically) in regards to social issues or their mission & values work (e.g. BLM, LGBTQ, sustainability/climate change, etc.) they are overwhelmed by negative/insensitive, hate speech related comments on their posts."
The employee further noted that Starbucks' community management team was unable to disable comments on their page and was struggling to moderate hateful responses.
In a statement, Starbucks spokesperson Sanja Gould did not confirm the reports but said that the company stood against hate speech.
"While some changes have been implemented, we believe more can be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities," she said about Facebook in a statement. "We work collaboratively with all companies we do business with to ensure any advertising done on our behalf is in alignment with our brand standards."
Starbucks took a stand against harmful content on Facebook Inc.'s platforms last year when it joined hundreds of other companies including Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Diageo Plc in temporarily pulling back on ad spending as part of an exodus aimed at pushing Facebook and its peers to limit hate speech and posts that divide and misinform. This formed part of the "Stop Hate for Profit" boycott campaign.
"Given the amount of noise this is drawing, this will have significant impact to Facebook’s business," Wedbush Securities analyst Bradley Gastwirth wrote in a research note at the time, according to Bloomberg. "Facebook needs to address this issue quickly and effectively in order to stop advertising exits from potentially spiraling out of control."
Commenting on reports that Starbucks may quit Facebook, a spokesperson for the social media giant, Dani Lever, said that Facebook offers "tools to limit this content from appearing on partners’ pages, including ways for brands to control those who can comment on their posts," according to Buzzfeed News.
"Our teams work with our clients around the world on various issues and, as this post shows, we are working with them to keep hate off of their pages," she said.
Starbucks will not be the first company to leave Facebook. In 2018, Elon Musk took down Tesla and SpaceX's Facebook pages amid the #DeleteFacebook campaign, but both companies still maintain Instagram accounts.
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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