Multinational corporation arms, Airtel unfriend Facebook, Instagram

NEW DELHI: Diageo, Airtel, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Adidas have paused advertising on Facebook and Instagram or have significantly reduced their visibility on these platforms in India over the past two months following decisions made by their parent companies to avoid being associated with objectionable content.A spokesperson for Diageo, the world’s largest spirits maker which owns Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, said in an email that advertising on large social media platforms is on hold across all markets including India.“From July 1, we paused all paid advertising globally on major social media platforms. We will continue to discuss with media partners how they will deal with unacceptable content,” the Diageo India spokesperson said.The pushback is on account of various reasons including the escalation of alleged toxic content, hate speech and disinformation on Facebook, and the coronavirus-induced pandemic that led companies to divert ad spending to social causes. 77603356A report by the Wall Street Journal last week alleged that a senior public policy official of Facebook in India opposed the removal of hate speech posts by a political leader, showing favouritism towards the party.“Most global and large-scale advertisers are working with tech platforms including Facebook to make sure there is transparency, fairness and no hate speech. That process is already on and technology majors have to use their tech tools to weed out these issues,” said Ashish Bhasin, India chairman for Dentsu Aegis Network, which represents Microsoft and MasterCard.Executives said the companies have also stepped up engagement with Facebook to filter out objectionable content and increase accountability and transparency. In the US, the call for the boycott was triggered with the #BlackLivesMatter movement following the death of an African American George Floyd.A top official at the India unit of a large multinational packaged consumer goods maker said it has heightened concerns over offensive content on Facebook and Instagram.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2Ycrk2V
via IFTTT