PlayStation Boycotts Facebook as Part of #StopHateForProfit
Sony Interactive Entertainment has decided to temporarily suspend its PlayStation-related Facebook and Instagram activities. This is another company that has supported #StopHateForProfit in the fight against disinformation and hate speech.
If you've been following social media in recent weeks, you may have noticed the #StopHateForProfit hashtag. Today, the action was supported by Sony, which has decided to temporarily withdraw the PlayStation ads and content from Facebook and Instagram. As discovered by GamesIndustry.biz, this move expected to last until the end of July.
Sony is not the first video game giant to support the #StopHateForProfit campaign. Earlier, a similar decision was taken by Microsoft, albeit only in connection with Facebook (which quite amusingly contrasts with the recent establishment of cooperation by both companies). The action itself is another effect of George Floyd's death, and more specifically the response to the protests it triggered in the US. It was then that the opposition to - as dissatisfied people want it - Facebook's (and Instagram's) tolerance towards hate speech and disinformation intensified. As advertisements account for over 90% of the website's revenue (via Statista), Stop Hate for Profit campaign organizers decided to put pressure on companies using the platform for marketing purposes.
Surprisingly, the appeal was successful. To this day, apart from Sony and Microsoft, the action was supported by such companies as Adidas, Honda, Coca-Cola, Ford, Lego and hundreds of others, and some of them also withdrew from other social networking websites. Another issue is whether this is enough cause for concern for Mark Zuckerberg. In a recent conversation with employees, the founder of Facebook was supposed to declare that he wouldn't yield to pressure, although he agreed to meet with the organizers of the protest in the near future (via Daily Mail).
