June 30, 2020 • 8 mins
Bloomberg Technology Executive Editor Tom Giles discusses Facebook ad sales taking a hit as companies like Starbucks and Diageo bail. He says the social media giant hasn't done a good job of keeping harmful content off its site, although it has taken steps.
Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Producer: Doni Holloway.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Mazer and Jason
Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. One story. We wanted to make
sure we talked about today because we were thinking about it.
I think a lot of the weekend and certainly is
the day began, Carol. The headlines just keep coming for Facebook.
We're going to talk to Tom Giles in a second,
but first let's hear a little bit of sound from
(00:21):
Nick Clegg. He is Facebook's VP for Global Affairs and Communications,
talking about the issues facing the company. I think it's
quite right that civil rights organizations should pressure us to
always do do better. I think that's totally fair. We
have three billion people or thereabouts on our platform around
the world. Thankfully, hate speeches are a tiny minority of
(00:44):
the total amount of content on our on our platforms
around the hundred and fifteen billion messages are sent on
our platforms on on every you know, on an average day,
and only a tiny fraction of that is hate speech.
But because it's a tiny fraction, it might be harder
to identify fine remove. But we should, of course always
try to do as well as we possibly can well
(01:06):
trying to do their best, says Nick clegg over at Facebook.
Let's break it down with Tom Giles, so excited to
have him on the show, Executive editor for Global Technology
joining us on the phone from San Francisco. So this
is quite a moment for Facebook. It feels like Tom,
help us understand how important it is. Absolutely well, it's
(01:27):
great to be on the show. Thanks for having me.
Right now. Facebook is under attack from a couple of
different areas. One, there's civil rights groups who were really
set up with what they consider to be ineffective efforts
at policing hate speech, as Nick was as Nick mcleg
was just discussing disinformation. There's a long litany of gripes
(01:52):
against many of them deserve um. The fact of the
matter is Facebook hasn't done a good job of keeping
harmful content off its site, whether you define that as
hate speech, glorification of violence, disinformation around elections, etcetera. The
list goes on and on. Now, in fairness, Facebook has
taken several steps, as Nick clad pointed out Mark Zuckerberg
(02:14):
last Friday outline some some changes that they're making. Civil
rights groups are not a peace and now you have brands,
global brands Board, Microsoft, Core Rox. The list goes on
and on and on of people saying we're either we're
gonna pause spending on either Facebook in particular or social
(02:36):
media more generally. We're concerned about harmful content, and we're
concerned about our ads appearing alongside content that is what
we consider to be inappropriate. So but really trying to
hit Facebook where it hurts the most and that's its
bottom line. God, I have so many questions for you,
tom Um. I feel like, why did it take so
long for companies to react? Why did it take so
(02:58):
long for Facebook to react? You know? And if we
weren't in this situation where we've all been locked down,
and I feel like we're all experiencing, you know, the
inequalities that are being unearthed again in our society altogether.
And if George Floyd, you know, hadn't been killed in Minneapolis,
would we be having this conversation and what would everybody
(03:19):
and the social media platforms kind of just be going
about their business. Well, I think that we we are
at a moment right now as a society, and George
Floyd's killing had a lot to do with it. The
discussion around race, the discussion around violence against people of color,
police brutality. Those conversations have been brought to the four
(03:41):
as a result of George Floyd, and you've seen corporate
America really take a stronger stand than they've taken before.
I mean, clearly, police violence against people of color is
not new. What's different is this time corporate America seems
to be getting the message in a stronger way. You've
(04:04):
seen changes in brands, You've seen changes in logos, You've
seen changes in you know, some of the products that
we've all grown up with. That's just one indication that
corporate America recognizes that business as usual is no longer
gonna work here um, and that they need to be
involved and they need to take the stand now. When
(04:25):
it comes to Facebook, there's a couple other things that
work here. Not only is there this cultural discussion, this
dialogue much needed, there's also the global pandemic that has
brought economic activity around the world, particularly in the US
in many sectors to a standstill or slowed them considerable. Right.
So when that happens, global brands decide, right now is
(04:49):
a good time for me to tap the brakes on
marketing spending. We saw that happening starting around March when
the when the quarantines began. It continued throughout the second quarter,
and it was its experience largely expected to continue probably
a bit a little bit in the third quarter in
the fourth quarter, but brands were already raining in spending.
(05:12):
There's little economic activity, little there's little reason if you're
if you're choosing between whether the fireworkers or rain in
your marketing budget, you're going to cut your marketing budget.
So this is a way for companies to get in
there and say we're doing something about race, and we're
also you know, justifying why we're cutting back on spending
on marketing. So Tom, I have to ask you. We
(05:32):
were talking about this a little bit before we came
into this segment, you know, looking at what's going on
um with Reddit especially and some of the moves that
they are are making and twitches making around their content.
I do wonder as you look back on it, and
obviously this is sort of instant history, but I mean,
(05:52):
was Jack Dorsey's moment a few months ago? I guess
it was about a month ago or so, what was
that as important as we think it was in terms
of maybe setting a new tone for what social media
cannon should be doing. When it comes to speech. I
think he put his foot down. He said that we
(06:13):
as social media can push back. We can say enough
is enough, and we don't have to be pushed around
by any group. Um. In this case, there are some
things that Trump has said and done in recent months.
I mean this is not new, right there has made
controversial statements and tweets for a very long time. But
(06:34):
when you combine that with the global pandemic and the
misinformation that has come from certain people close to Trump,
it's not Trump himself. Um, when you look at that,
When you look at the things that he has said
that that have condoned or glorified or otherwise kind of
rallied people around violent or violence or violent imagery, this
(06:55):
is where this is where, this is where Twitter, Jack
Doors in particular, said, We're going to start to annotate.
We're going to start to put some disclaimers, some warnings
around Trump's tweets when we think that they are inappropriate,
violat our policies, or or glorify violence or spread disinformation.
(07:15):
Why that wasn't happening? I mean basically, Twitter's critics, just
like Facebook's critics, would say, it's all long overdue they're
also going to say, well, we're glad it's finally happening, right,
and the stakes are really high. We're in a global pandemic,
we've got we've got race as a matter of national
debate and discussion, and we've got the election in four
(07:37):
or five months. Yeah, there's a lot going on, and
you're right, never never more important than now to be
having these discussions. What a treat to up with, Toms.
What of our favorites for having me? It's great. It's again, yes, done, done, done,
done and done. Tom Giles, executive editor for glovel Technology,
(07:58):
joining us from servances Scout one of Bloomberg's best full
out so small stop and I gotta just say, Facebook
shares they ended up more than two percent. They were
down nine percent earlier in our session. They were down
eight percent Friday. But it's interesting, despite you know, big
time investors pulling back the stock, you know, continue to
rally off of that low. So yeah, that's you know,
(08:21):
money talks in a lot of different ways.
This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Mazer and Jason
Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. One story. We wanted to make
sure we talked about today because we were thinking about it.
I think a lot of the weekend and certainly is
the day began, Carol. The headlines just keep coming for Facebook.
We're going to talk to Tom Giles in a second,
but first let's hear a little bit of sound from
(00:21):
Nick Clegg. He is Facebook's VP for Global Affairs and Communications,
talking about the issues facing the company. I think it's
quite right that civil rights organizations should pressure us to
always do do better. I think that's totally fair. We
have three billion people or thereabouts on our platform around
the world. Thankfully, hate speeches are a tiny minority of
(00:44):
the total amount of content on our on our platforms
around the hundred and fifteen billion messages are sent on
our platforms on on every you know, on an average day,
and only a tiny fraction of that is hate speech.
But because it's a tiny fraction, it might be harder
to identify fine remove. But we should, of course always
try to do as well as we possibly can well
(01:06):
trying to do their best, says Nick clegg over at Facebook.
Let's break it down with Tom Giles, so excited to
have him on the show, Executive editor for Global Technology
joining us on the phone from San Francisco. So this
is quite a moment for Facebook. It feels like Tom,
help us understand how important it is. Absolutely well, it's
(01:27):
great to be on the show. Thanks for having me.
Right now. Facebook is under attack from a couple of
different areas. One, there's civil rights groups who were really
set up with what they consider to be ineffective efforts
at policing hate speech, as Nick was as Nick mcleg
was just discussing disinformation. There's a long litany of gripes
(01:52):
against many of them deserve um. The fact of the
matter is Facebook hasn't done a good job of keeping
harmful content off its site, whether you define that as
hate speech, glorification of violence, disinformation around elections, etcetera. The
list goes on and on. Now, in fairness, Facebook has
taken several steps, as Nick clad pointed out Mark Zuckerberg
(02:14):
last Friday outline some some changes that they're making. Civil
rights groups are not a peace and now you have brands,
global brands Board, Microsoft, Core Rox. The list goes on
and on and on of people saying we're either we're
gonna pause spending on either Facebook in particular or social
(02:36):
media more generally. We're concerned about harmful content, and we're
concerned about our ads appearing alongside content that is what
we consider to be inappropriate. So but really trying to
hit Facebook where it hurts the most and that's its
bottom line. God, I have so many questions for you,
tom Um. I feel like, why did it take so
long for companies to react? Why did it take so
(02:58):
long for Facebook to react? You know? And if we
weren't in this situation where we've all been locked down,
and I feel like we're all experiencing, you know, the
inequalities that are being unearthed again in our society altogether.
And if George Floyd, you know, hadn't been killed in Minneapolis,
would we be having this conversation and what would everybody
(03:19):
and the social media platforms kind of just be going
about their business. Well, I think that we we are
at a moment right now as a society, and George
Floyd's killing had a lot to do with it. The
discussion around race, the discussion around violence against people of color,
police brutality. Those conversations have been brought to the four
(03:41):
as a result of George Floyd, and you've seen corporate
America really take a stronger stand than they've taken before.
I mean, clearly, police violence against people of color is
not new. What's different is this time corporate America seems
to be getting the message in a stronger way. You've
(04:04):
seen changes in brands, You've seen changes in logos, You've
seen changes in you know, some of the products that
we've all grown up with. That's just one indication that
corporate America recognizes that business as usual is no longer
gonna work here um, and that they need to be
involved and they need to take the stand now. When
(04:25):
it comes to Facebook, there's a couple other things that
work here. Not only is there this cultural discussion, this
dialogue much needed, there's also the global pandemic that has
brought economic activity around the world, particularly in the US
in many sectors to a standstill or slowed them considerable. Right.
So when that happens, global brands decide, right now is
(04:49):
a good time for me to tap the brakes on
marketing spending. We saw that happening starting around March when
the when the quarantines began. It continued throughout the second quarter,
and it was its experience largely expected to continue probably
a bit a little bit in the third quarter in
the fourth quarter, but brands were already raining in spending.
(05:12):
There's little economic activity, little there's little reason if you're
if you're choosing between whether the fireworkers or rain in
your marketing budget, you're going to cut your marketing budget.
So this is a way for companies to get in
there and say we're doing something about race, and we're
also you know, justifying why we're cutting back on spending
on marketing. So Tom, I have to ask you. We
(05:32):
were talking about this a little bit before we came
into this segment, you know, looking at what's going on
um with Reddit especially and some of the moves that
they are are making and twitches making around their content.
I do wonder as you look back on it, and
obviously this is sort of instant history, but I mean,
(05:52):
was Jack Dorsey's moment a few months ago? I guess
it was about a month ago or so, what was
that as important as we think it was in terms
of maybe setting a new tone for what social media
cannon should be doing. When it comes to speech. I
think he put his foot down. He said that we
(06:13):
as social media can push back. We can say enough
is enough, and we don't have to be pushed around
by any group. Um. In this case, there are some
things that Trump has said and done in recent months.
I mean this is not new, right there has made
controversial statements and tweets for a very long time. But
(06:34):
when you combine that with the global pandemic and the
misinformation that has come from certain people close to Trump,
it's not Trump himself. Um, when you look at that,
When you look at the things that he has said
that that have condoned or glorified or otherwise kind of
rallied people around violent or violence or violent imagery, this
(06:55):
is where this is where, this is where Twitter, Jack
Doors in particular, said, We're going to start to annotate.
We're going to start to put some disclaimers, some warnings
around Trump's tweets when we think that they are inappropriate,
violat our policies, or or glorify violence or spread disinformation.
(07:15):
Why that wasn't happening? I mean basically, Twitter's critics, just
like Facebook's critics, would say, it's all long overdue they're
also going to say, well, we're glad it's finally happening, right,
and the stakes are really high. We're in a global pandemic,
we've got we've got race as a matter of national
debate and discussion, and we've got the election in four
(07:37):
or five months. Yeah, there's a lot going on, and
you're right, never never more important than now to be
having these discussions. What a treat to up with, Toms.
What of our favorites for having me? It's great. It's again, yes, done, done, done,
done and done. Tom Giles, executive editor for glovel Technology,
(07:58):
joining us from servances Scout one of Bloomberg's best full
out so small stop and I gotta just say, Facebook
shares they ended up more than two percent. They were
down nine percent earlier in our session. They were down
eight percent Friday. But it's interesting, despite you know, big
time investors pulling back the stock, you know, continue to
rally off of that low. So yeah, that's you know,
(08:21):
money talks in a lot of different ways.
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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