Report: Zuckerberg Tells Facebook Employees He Won’t Change Policies Based on ‘Threat’ from Advertisers

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly has told employees not to worry, assuring them that advertisers that have boycotted the social media giant will return “soon enough.”

According to a report from the Information, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told employees that he’s not worried about the recent boycott of the social media platform by major advertisers and has no intention of changing the site’s policies.

During a virtual town hall with Facebook employees, Zuckerberg implied that the boycott was a PR issue rather than an issue that will have a negative impact on the companies financials. “We’re not gonna change our policies or approach on anything because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue, or to any percent of our revenue,” Zuckerberg stated.

While brands such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Starbucks, Target, Unilever, and Verizon boycotting Facebook isn’t good for the social media platform, the boycotting companies only make up a small fraction of Facebook’s 8 million advertisers. Nearly all of Facebook’s revenue is generated by advertising on its platform.

Facebook has recently made changes to its policies surrounding hateful conduct and voting misinformation, but Zuckerberg was quick to assure employees that no outside pressure forced the changes.  “You know, we don’t technically set our policies because of any pressure that people apply to us,” he said, according to the Information. “And, in fact, usually I tend to think that if someone goes out there and threatens you to do something, that actually kind of puts you in a box where in some ways it’s even harder to do what they want because now it looks like you’re capitulating, and that sets up bad long-term incentives for others to do that [to you] as well.”

Some advertising experts have stated that brands pulling their advertising from Facebook may actually give a short-term boost to their brand visibility. Gerard Francis Corbett, a communications strategy consultant based in Silicon Valley, told MarketWatch recently: “By pulling ads, they save money and make a low-risk statement that results in positive publicity and marketing for their brands among constituents. The Facebook boycott is a lower-risk way for CEOs to make a [political] statement.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com