NAACP president calls Facebook 'one of the biggest threats to democracy' as companies join ad boycott

As Facebook faces an ad boycott, the president of the NAACP is blasting the platform as a threat to democracy.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is among the civil rights organizations behind a campaign for companies to pause advertising on Facebook in July; they're calling for Facebook to change its policies and take action against "hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence" on the platform.

"They have allowed a foreign nation to interfere with our elections," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson told MSNBC on Thursday. "They have fanned the flames of racial hatred, and altered the course of our democracy, and they refuse to do anything about it. ... They are probably one of the biggest threats to democracy that we see."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Some of the companies that have backed the "Stop Hate for Profit" ad boycott of Facebook include Ben & Jerry's and The North Face. Facebook "must take the clear and unequivocal actions to stop its platform from being used to spread and amplify racism and hate," Ben & Jerry's said this week. Axios writes the boycott "likely won't hurt the company's bottom line in the short term," but it "turns up the political pressure" on Facebook ahead of the election.

Rev. Al Sharpton also spoke on MSNBC on Thursday, noting he and Johnson have both met privately with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"We went to Zuckerberg's home, had a meeting with several hours," Sharpton said. "...We tried to reason with them, and they will not do it."

Civil rights leaders including from the NAACP previously blasted Zuckerberg after talking with him about why Facebook hasn't taken down posts by President Trump that Twitter flagged for glorifying violence. The groups called Zuckerberg's explanations "incomprehensible." Brendan Morrow