As a company driven by our values, we at Levi Strauss & Co. have a responsibility to speak up and take action when we see major issues arise that impact our employees, fans and community at large.
It is in this spirit that we are voicing our concern about Facebook’s failure to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform. We believe this inaction fuels racism and violence and also has the potential to threaten our democracy and the integrity of our elections.
As we near the U.S. election in November and double down on our own efforts to expand voter education and turnout, we are asking Facebook to commit to decisive change. Specifically, we want to see meaningful progress towards ending the amplification of misinformation and hate speech and better addressing of political advertisements and content that contributes to voter suppression. While we appreciate that Facebook announced some steps in this direction today – it’s simply not enough.
That’s why we are joining the #StopHateForProfit campaign, pausing all paid Facebook and Instagram advertising globally and across all our brands to “hit pause on hate.” We will suspend advertising at least through the end of July. When we re-engage will depend on Facebook’s response.
Every company, including ours, has a responsibility to reflect on the systemic racism in our country and push themselves to do more and do better. Learn more about the campaign at https://www.stophateforprofit.org/.
