Dutch advertisers are watching with great concern the revelations of a Facebook whistleblower at the beginning of this week. That is what interest organization Bond van Adverteerders (BvA) says to the NOS. Measures, such as the withdrawal of advertisements, have not yet been taken.
Whistleblower Frances Haugen is a former employee of the tech giant. She says, among other things, that the social network considers profit more important than the safety of its users. As proof, she copied tens of thousands of pages of internal documents just before she left.
Haugen spoke about this extensively in the TV program 60 Minutes and for the United States Senate. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has firmly distanced himself from Haugen’s allegations; according to him, the allegations are incorrect.
BvA director Henriette van Swinderen says the latest revelations “underline the concerns that have existed for some time”. She adds that there is a risk for advertisers that their ads will end up next to messages that are “not beneficial to the brand”.
No data about the Netherlands
At the same time, she emphasizes that positive steps have also been taken. There is a partnership in the advertising world, the so-called Global Alliance for Responsible Media, that attempts to address issues surrounding malicious messages and advertisements. Here, Facebook, like other platforms, provides quarterly information on how it is tackling things like misinformation and hate speech.
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Of course we want to know: what is happening in the Dutch language area? What type of messages are deleted?
“These reports show an upward trend,” says Van Swinderen. “What we miss very much is what the situation is at a local level. Of course we want to know: what is happening in the Dutch language area? What type of messages are being deleted?” If that information does not come, she takes into account that there will be too much uncertainty for advertisers. “This is a concern for a large part of our members.”
According to the BvA director, this has been discussed with Facebook for some time. “Initially we heard that nothing was possible. It is now being looked at more seriously, but the question is how this will turn out.”
Hundreds of millions of euros are spent annually in the Netherlands on advertising on Facebook and Instagram, says Van Swinderen. The total advertising budget is about 4 billion euros, half of that goes to online. Another important part goes to advertising on Google. Facebook’s turnover consists of more than 98 percent from advertising income.
#StopHateForProfit
Last year there was already a massive boycott of Facebook by advertisers, under the hashtag #StopHateForProfit. Companies then said to temporarily withdraw because the company is doing too little against racism and hate speech. Financially, Facebook has had little or no trouble with this. This is because in addition to large advertisers, the platform can also count on many SMEs, who cannot just go elsewhere.
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The importance of Facebook is too great for advertisers as long as there is no equally powerful alternative.
Youssef Eddini, partner at communication agency Van Luyken, thinks that it is too important for advertisers to stay with Facebook as long as there is no good alternative.
“Facebook is a powerful channel and advertisers can target very audiences on it,” he says. “In short, the importance of Facebook is too great for advertisers as long as there is no equally powerful alternative.” What is possible, he thinks, is that advertisers, just like last year, stop with the message that they expect the platform to make improvements. Although he does not expect that the enthusiasm for this will be great.
Facebook response
Responding to advertisers’ concerns, the tech company reiterated that “every day teams are trying to balance billions of people with the opportunity to express themselves, but also the need to keep our platform safe”. Facebook also reiterates that it continues to make “major improvements” in the fight against misinformation and harmful content.
The tech giant does not want to respond to the call from the Association of Advertisers to receive more information about tackling unwanted content in the Netherlands.