Report: Starbucks Considering Leaving Facebook over Hate Speech

A Starbucks coffee cup is seen inside a Starbucks Coffee shop in Washington, DC, April 17,
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Coffee powerhouse Starbucks is said to be considering leaving social media giant Facebook over the “negative/insensitive, hate speech-related comments” the company receives on posts related to social justice issues.

BuzzFeed News reported the company’s frustration with the Facebook comments reached a breaking point, causing the company to consider deleting its page.

The report is based on internal discussions viewed by BuzzFeed written by Facebook employees who manage the relationship between Facebook and Starbucks.

“Starbucks is in the process of evaluating their organic presence on FB, and whether they should continue to have a presence on the platform at all,” a Facebook employee wrote.

“Anytime they post (organically) in regards to social issues or their mission & values work (e.g. BLM, LGBTQ, sustainability/climate change, etc.), they are overwhelmed by negative/insensitive, hate speech related comments on their posts,” the employee continued.

If Starbucks were to leave the social media platform, it would not be the first company to do so, but it would be the largest.

Elon Musk removed the Facebook pages for Tesla and SpaceX in 2018 as part of a #DeleteFacebook campaign in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal because of the company’s data collection practices and privacy settings.

Both of Musk’s companies kept an Instagram presence, even though the company is owned by Facebook, but both companies have not restored their Facebook pages.

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