Procter and Gamble have the world’s largest advertising budget and right now they are funding platforms that spread racism and hate. Procter and Gamble depend on Black people as both customers and workers, they have the leverage to demand Facebook and Google address the racism their platforms are spreading. We are learning more and more about the different ways groups are using Facebook and Google to spread anti-Blackness online by gaming their algorithms to amplify the influence of white supremacists. We are also seeing Facebook and Google refuse to address this racism in a substantive manner. Instead, these companies are offering excuses for their lack of action. It is time for Procter and Gamble to decide whether they will use their money to continue to fund platforms for white supremacists or demand that Facebook and Google take responsibility for bigotry their platforms are incubating.

Procter and Gamble spend over seven billion dollars on advertising alone. With their power companies like Facebook and Google have to respond to their demands. Recently Unilever has said that they would pull advertising from Facebook and Google if they continue to provide support for racism. There is no reason for Procter and Gamble to continue to be silent in addressing the racism their advertising dollars are supporting. Facebook and Google cannot keep supporting and spreading racist propaganda without companies like Procter and Gamble funding them. We will no longer let Procter and Gamble get away with providing the money for these platforms without being responsible for what their money is spreading. We will sing here, and make our voices heard, through calls, protests, billboards, we’ll hire skywriter! Whatever it takes to let Procter and Gamble understand that they can no longer hide.

Our society is under deliberate attack, intelligence agencies are already anticipating increased online activity hoping to stoke racism endemic to America before the 2018 midterm elections. We must all work together to combat the continued weaponization of white supremacy. As the world’s biggest advertiser we need Procter and Gamble to step out front and say no more funding for racism. Tell them to pull their dollars to push Facebook and Google to address racism.

Here is the Petition:

I am signing this petition to tell Procter and Gamble to pull their advertising funding to push Facebook and Google to give an accurate account of the prevalence of racist activity on their sites. We cannot address an issue we fail to fully understand. In order to ensure we have a full and clear picture of the problem before us, we ask that Procter and Gamble demand that Facebook and Google take substantive action including but not limited to: 

Bringing on an independent third-party team to conduct a thorough and public audit of the civil rights impact of your policies and programs, including an assessment of processes related to addressing extremism by white supremacists and other hate-based content on your platforms that encourages harassment and violence towards many communities;

Assigning a senior manager who is a member of the executive team with authority to oversee addressing hate company-wide and name that person publicly; and create a committee of outside advisors with expertise in identifying and tracking hate who will have responsibility for producing an annual and publicly available report on the effectiveness of the steps taken by the company.

Disclosing publicly any new plans that have been developed to address extremism, and whether those plans will seriously address white supremacists; and,

Hiring experts to address hateful conduct and content by white supremacists.