Disney strips ads from Facebook to join growing boycott over handling of hate speech, WSJ reports

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has pulled all ad spending from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), according to a Wall Street Journal report on Saturday, becoming the latest company to snub the social media giant.  Disney was Facebook's top US advertiser, the report said, citing the research firm Pathmatic Inc. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), Target, The Unilever Group (NYSE:UL) and others have all joined the #StopHateforProfit ad boycott in recent weeks, criticizing the tech titan’s handling of hate speech and disinformation, including content from President Trump. READ: Uber joins fight against coronavirus pandemic by offering contact tracing service The plan for many companies is to boycott ad spending on the social network for at least a month, but Disney didn’t make a public announcement of its own plans, the WSJ report said.  For now, the company has halted advertising of its video streaming service Disney+ and yanked ads off Instagram, which Facebook owns, for the streaming service Hulu.  “We know we have more work to do, and we’ll continue to work with civil rights groups ... and other experts to develop even more tools, technology and policies to continue this fight,” a Facebook representative said in an email statement, per the WSJ report. Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel