After using their star power to unsuccessfully tackle complicated issues like the coronavirus pandemic and systemic racism via earnest straight-to-camera social media videos, celebrities are back at it again. This time famous people are attempting to punish Mark Zuckerberg and protest hate speech by logging off Instagram and Facebook for an entire 24 hours.
If social media seems just a little bit bleaker today, you can chalk that up to a wide range of celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Cara Delevingne, Naomi Campbell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ashton Kutcher, Olivia Wilde, Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan, and Jennifer Lawrence, logging off en masse. This one-day Instagram and Facebook freeze is part of the Stop Hate for Profit initiative that previously pressured advertisers to stop spending on those platforms. The July advertising pause was considered a great success, with more than 1,200 companies and nonprofits supporting the initiative, including big brands like Verizon, Adidas, Unilever, and Ford.
Campbell explained why she decided to participate in the initiative on Instagram ahead of the pause, writing, “Facebook claims they address #hate, yet they continue to look the other way as racist, violent groups posts, sow division and split the world apart. They only take steps after people are killed or something horrible has happened. They share empty talk about voting, they continue to allow blatant lies and misinformation on every election to spread – undermining democracy globally. That’s why this Wednesday, I am ‘freezing’ my Instagram account to tell Facebook to #StopHateForProfit.”
DiCaprio also Instagrammed about his decision to join the protest, writing, “I’m standing with the country’s leading civil rights organizations – including @ColorofChange, @ADL_National, and the @NAACP – who today have called on all users of Instagram and Facebook to protest the amplification of hate, racism, and the undermining of democracy on those platforms.” This day of silence is accompanied by a week of action that will end on September 18 with a call for people to vote in November’s presidential election.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, it was revealed that a major D.C.-based P.R. firm used Facebook and Instagram to run fake accounts intended to manipulate the politics of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico, so it seems there’s still plenty of work left to be done.
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