Facebook will now place new restrictions on hateful content in ads, outrightly banning ads that encourage racial divisions. The restrictions will, however, affect only promoted posts and will not affect posts without paid promotions.

 

With the new restrictions, Facebook says it will do the following:

 

“… prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, s****l orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others.”

 

Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, who announced the policy in a recent company town hall, added:

 

“Facebook stands for giving people a voice, and that especially means people who have previously not had as much voice or as much power to share their own experiences. It’s really important that we make sure our platforms live up to these principles.”

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These restrictions will also ban ads on Facebook that express hate for immigrants or refugees. The company is bringing these changes as the polity surrounding racism has heated up in recent weeks.

 

The US presidential elections coming in November 2020 and boycotts of its platforms by advertisers are reasons for the decision.

 

Big corporations like Unilever, Viber, and Verizon have announced boycotting all planned ad spending till the end of 2020. Color of Change and other organisations started the boycott, calling it the “Stop Hate For Profit” campaign.

 

The campaign calls on advertisers to pause ad spending on Facebook during the month of July 2020 due to the company’s reluctance to moderate hate speech.

 

Facebook is also establishing a new policy for posts that violate its policies. Those types of posts will, however, be allowed to remain on the site due to public interest value. But it will label them to warn users who come across them.

 

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