A Facebook advertiser boycott is gaining traction

Facebook is about to be hit with its largest advertising boycott, due in large part to its handling of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on its platform after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. On Tuesday, retailer Eddie Bauer, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, and production company Magnolia Pictures, joined several other large corporations like Patagonia, REI, and The North Face in a pledge to pull all advertising from Facebook through the month of July. The campaign is officially titled Stop Hate For Profit and includes over 100 other small businesses. The campaign’s mission is to “demand that Facebook address racism across their platforms” while calling on advertisers to pull their ads off of the social media platform, as well as Instagram, for the month of July. We will pause all paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the US in support of the #StopHateForProfit campaign. Facebook, Inc. must take the clear and unequivocal actions to stop its platform from being used to spread and amplify racism and hate. >>>https://t.co/7OpxtcbDGg pic.twitter.com/I989Uk9V3h — Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) June 23, 2020 Patagonia is proud to join the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. We will pull all ads on Facebook and Instagram, effective immediately, through at least the end of July, pending meaningful action from the social media giant. — Patagonia (@patagonia) June 21, 2020 Stop Hate For Profit was launched by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Color of Change, and anti-hate organization Anti-Defamation League in early June, coinciding with Trump’s infamous “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” post that was moderated by Twitter, but was left alone by Facebook’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, even after shift criticism and an employee revolt. On Tuesday, Twitter hit another one of Trump’s tweets about protestors with an “abusive behavior” label, while the same post remains without moderation on Facebook. Pressure has been building on Facebook to rethink its hands-off approach to policing harmful content. In a statement announcing its plan to join the boycott, Ben & Jerry’s said Facebook is responsible for “being used to divide our nation, suppress voters, foment and fan the flames of racism and violence, and undermine our democracy” — all of which the social media company has denied. On a call with over 200 advertisers Tuesday, a Facebook executive said the company is currently suffering from a “trust deficit” as it attempts to assuage client fears over the growing boycott, according to a report by the Financial Times. In an emailed statement to Digital Trends, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Business Carolyn Everson said, “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.” Whether or not the boycott will have an effect on Facebook’s bottom line financially remains to be seen. Facebook rakes in over $70 billion annually, much, if not all, comes directly from advertisers. If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55. In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner. The iPad Fold, as it’s being touted, could arrive as soon as next year. A new report suggests that the first folding iPad could be on track to land in 2026. Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks.