Aviva pulls Facebook ads amidst ongoing hate speech row

Aviva has become the latest UK-based business to suspend ads on Facebook in response to how the social network handles hateful content on its platform, the BBC reports.

Aviva, alongside the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), joins Ford, Adidas, HP, Coca Cola, Unilever and Starbucks in stopping Facebook ads.

In a statement to the BBC, Aviva said: “We regularly review which social media platforms we use and have taken this moment to pause and reassess Aviva’s use of Facebook for advertising in the UK.”

The move from the insurer comes as a number of large advertisers have joined forces to create the Stop Hate for Profit Campaign, which claims tech companies are not doing enough to fight hate on their digital social platforms and is urging businesses to suspend advertising on Facebook over the course of July.

A statement on the campaign’s website, which started in the US, reads: “Hundreds of  businesses are standing in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice and not advertising on Facebook’s services in July. Join us and advocate for positive change.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Facebook UK director Steve Hatch defended the social network’s record on hate speech.

“Our systems now remove 90% of and detect 90% of that hate speech automatically. And now that’s not perfect, but we do know that it’s up from 23% two years ago,” he said.

“As much as we do our very best, and there’s always more that we can do and that we will do - when there’s hate in the world, there will also be hate on Facebook.

“The way that our systems work are to provide people with the content that is most often in millions and millions of cases both enjoyable and safe, and also to enable people to have a discussion.”