Verizon says it will pull ads from Facebook, Instagram

Verizon announced Thursday that it would join a growing number of companies pulling advertisements from Facebook and Instagram in protest against Facebook’s moderation policy.

The company told The Hill that it was “pausing” advertising on Facebook’s platforms until the company could find an “acceptable” solution to misinformation, particularly from political figures, on its platforms.

“We have strict content policies in place and have zero tolerance when they are breached, we take action,” Verizon’s chief media officer John Nitti said. “We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.”

Facebook’s advertisers have faced pressure from activist campaigns for months to abandon the platform over CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence on allowing politicians the freedom to target certain sectors of online users with little moderation. Zuckerberg said that that the company would allow free discussion around controversial topics. However, critics say these practices amount to an acceptance of misinformation and false political attacks.

A Facebook official responded to the news in a statement to Axios, saying: “We respect any brand’s decision, and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information. Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, together, we can be a force for good.”

President Trump in particular has been the target of criticism for spreading false information or spreading harmful political attacks online using Facebook’s platform. However, the company recently removed a Trump campaign ad after the post appeared to use a red upside down triangle associated with the Nazi regime. 

Still, the company has rejected some requests to remove content from the president’s campaign that pushed unfounded theories about former Vice President Joe Biden’s (D) dealings with Ukrainian officials.