Companies like Google and Facebook make a big chunk of their revenues from online ads. The companies make tens of billions of dollars annually from their ads business, relying on major corporations and even individual users to spend money on their ad networks. Unilever, a massive transnational consumer goods company, has threatened to stop advertising on Facebook and Google if the companies don’t do more to prevent illegal and extremist content from spreading.
The company says that consumer trust in social media is at an all-time low and that companies can’t continue to support an online advertising industry where fake news, child exploitation, extremist material, political manipulation, sexism, and racism is rampant.
“We cannot have an environment where our consumers don’t trust what they see online,” said Unilever’s chief marketing officer Keith Weed, adding that people are now worried more than ever about the impact of digital media on their wellbeing, “and on truth itself.”
Unilever has also pledged to only invest in platforms that make a positive contribution to society, address gender stereotypes in advertising, only work with companies that create a responsible digital infrastructure, and not invest in platforms that don’t protect children or create division in society.
Digital media experts believe that many other companies could join Unilever in its bid to put pressure on the likes of Facebook and Google to do more to clean up their platforms.