Social media platforms play an important role in society but equally, they have a powerful role to play in stopping the spread of hate speech and misinformation.
There is no room for discrimination in a healthy society. Mars has a responsibility and an opportunity to make a meaningful and measurable difference in the fight against racism, hate, violence and discrimination – we expect all of the social media platform partners we work with to do the same.
We are committed to doing our part to accelerate the pace of progress in creating a safe and fair experience for everyone.
Starting in July, we will pause paid advertising globally across news feed based social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. We will work with our partners until we are clear of progress and timebound actions taken by these platforms. This includes:
- Auditing transparency and reporting on the effectiveness of brand safety measures these platforms already have in place.
- Giving consumers a safer experience by monitoring content and enforcing community standards that address hate speech and misinformation.
- Controlling the placement of advertising content next to sensitive and/or inappropriate content.
- Improving reporting and data to enable marketers like Mars to better control where our advertising is placed online.
- Showing meaningful progress against the key demands of the #StopHateforProfit campaign
During this time, we will work with these platforms to agree on clear, meaningful actions that create a roadmap for change, through our partnership with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). We are confident that working with our agencies, industry and social media partners we can make meaningful change.