Stop Hate For Profit: Why celebrities are freezing their Instagrams for a day

#culture

BY

Alyanna Payos

If you’ve been scrolling through your Instagram feeds wondering where your fave celebrities have gone, it’s likely they’re taking part in yet another social media challenge. Dubbed #StopHateForProfit, the campaign is society’s latest call for action, and this time the focus is on Facebook.

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Thank you to @michaelbjordan @iamjamiefoxx @leonardodicaprio @kerrywashington @kimkardashian @naomi for calling out @facebook for ignoring hate & disinformation on their site. This is not an “operational mistake.” It is a deliberate decision to divide. #StopHateForProfit

A post shared by NAACP (@naacp) on Sep 15, 2020 at 8:59pm PDT

Having started this Monday, 14 September, Stop Hate for Profit’s ‘week of action’ continues to call for a change to Facebook’s policies ahead of the U.S. elections this November, and hopes to raise awareness of the social network giant’s impact on society. Included in this week of action is an Instagram “freeze” urging everyone to refrain from any activity for the 24-hour period. Many celebrities have taken part in the challenge, uploading a #StopHateForProfit statement to Instagram before bidding their temporary farewells and pasting a link in their bios to stophateforprofit.org.

In addition to her personal account, Kim took to Twitter to announce that KKW Beauty, KKW Fragrance, and Skims would also see their Instagram and Facebook accounts go dark.

– only to take steps after people are killed. Misinformation shared on social media has a serious impact on our elections and undermines our democracy. Please join me tomorrow when I will be “freezing” my Instagram and FB account to tell Facebook to #StopHateForProfit.
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) September 15, 2020

Others include Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Campbell, Robert Downey Jr., Demi Lovato, and Gal Gadot.

The Stop Hate for Profit Campaign

The ongoing Stop Hate for Profit campaign is a coalition between advocacy organizations including Color of Change, the Anti-Defamation League, and the NAACP. Launched earlier this June, they continue to hold Facebook accountable for “valuing profits over hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism, and disinformation” as business ads continue to run alongside the aforementioned content. Stop Hate for Profit’s first project was a call for a Facebook ads boycott, asking companies to withhold all spending on Facebook and Instagram ads for the month of July. Sportswear favourites Adidas, Puma, and Lululemon were among the many large brands that took part.