Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Back Facebook Boycott Over Its Failure to Tackle Racist Hate Speech

• Meghan Markle and Prince Harry (opens in new tab) are backing the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which calls for businesses to pull their advertisements from Facebook to protest its failure to tackle racist hate speech.
• An insider told People that Meghan and Harry (opens in new tab) have been working with "civil rights and racial justice groups" to tackle online hate speech, which they hope to make a focus of their nonprofit, Archewell.
• NAACP President Derrick Johnson thanked the Sussexes for supporting the Stop Hate for Profit campaign on Twitter, writing, "Thank you for embodying the kind of leadership that meets the moment

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are "working behind the scenes" of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign (opens in new tab), People reports (opens in new tab), which calls on businesses to stop advertising on Facebook to protest its failure to deplatform racist hate speech. Facebook was recently condemned (opens in new tab) for its refusal to remove Donald Trump's post inciting violence against Black Lives Matter protestors—"when the looting starts the shooting starts," Trump wrote on both Facebook and Twitter—and has long been criticized (opens in new tab) for enabling the spread of hate speech and misinformation. 

"As we've been developing Archewell [Meghan and Harry's upcoming nonprofit], one of the areas The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been keen to address is online hate speech, and we've been working with civil rights and racial justice groups on it," a royal insider told People. "Over the past few weeks, in particular, this issue has become even more vital and they have been working to encourage global CEOs to stand in solidarity with a coalition of civil and racial justice groups like the NAACP, Color of Change, and the Anti-Defamation League, which are calling for structural changes to our online world."

On Twitter, NAACP President Derrick Johnson commended Meghan and Harry, writing, "Thank you for embodying the kind of leadership that meets the moment. The @NAACP deeply value your unwavering support to #StopHateForProfit."

The campaign, created by organizations including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, and Color of Change, calls on businesses to "stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality, and justice and not advertise on Facebook's services in July."

"99% of Facebook’s $70 billion is made through advertising," the Stop Hate for Profit website reads (opens in new tab). "Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence."

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