It will be interesting to see whether this is a 'real' boycott, or simply a convenient excuse for cutting ad spend. Alphabet (Google) is probably the most comparable company in terms of revenue sources, and their earnings were down 20% YoY for the first quarter. If Google's revenue is down by more than 20% as of their next report (by end of July), I think we can firmly say that the 'boycott' is just showmanship. I suspect this is the case, given the low fill rate for ad slots on Youtube right now.
When these companies start advertising again in a few weeks there needs to be negative PR. I think a lot of them are only pausing ad buy's regardless of what facebook does. Sadly, I think the only real way to kill facebook is to cut off friends and family that use it,at least from all digital comms.
This is also impacting Twitter, ex: Unilever is pausing ad placements on Twitter too. Honestly I think Twitter is worse since there are so many anonymous accounts that harass/doxx others.
Oh, this whole "Boycott Facebook" movement is such a load of feces. Facebook isn't the problem. "Social Media" is such a misnomer; this is really just "people interacting" and where people interact, there's going to be arguments and different points of views and, yes, unfortunately some racism, hate speech, etc. Boycott human nature, not Facebook.<p>As for "profiting from hate speech": If some asshole decides to chant racial slogans in your town square and it draws a crowd and there happens to be a Geico ad on the bus stop behind him, does that mean that the town is profiting from hate speech (because the town sold that ad space) or that Geico supports hate speech (because it rented that space)?<p>Verizon is a bunch of hypocrites. They sell internet service (Fios and/or wireless) and devices (phones) that are directly used by people to post hate speech. By their own extension, they should boycott themselves.<p>Then you get these "guns don't kill people, people kill people" folk who don't apply the same argument to social media; "a communication platform doesn't propagate hate speech, people propagate hate speech".<p>If anything, Facebook is thoroughly impressive in its "genuine" content. A platform where, for the most part, Grandma and Neighbor and Classmate and Colleague and Teacher and 2 billion other people of all flavors can generally interact with minimum animosity. Name another commination platform at that scale that hasn't just essentially reduced to porn, prostitution, drugs, and selling body parts. We should be thanking Facebook for even attempting to connect people, against all odds.