© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: United States President Donald Trump departs on a trip to West Point, New York, from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.
By Sheila Dang (Reuters) – Civil rights groups in the United States will organize an advertising boycott against Alphabet’s (NASDAQ 🙂 YouTube if it does not remove President Donald Trump’s channel, the groups told Reuters. Jim Steyer, one of the organizers of the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign that led more than 1,000 advertisers to boycott Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 in July, said the groups are demanding that YouTube remove Trump’s verified YouTube channel, which it has 2.76 million subscribers. YouTube is the latest big tech company that hasn’t banned Trump from posting on its platforms. Facebook, Twitter and Snap Inc (NYSE 🙂 blocked Trump after supporters of the president stormed the US Capitol last week, leading to five deaths. Trump’s YouTube channel gives him the opportunity to continue spreading false information that the US elections were stolen, Steyer said. On Tuesday, Trump’s verified YouTube channel posted eight new videos. YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment. YouTube has told the groups that it is considering the lawsuits, but has yet to act, Steyer said. “If YouTube disagrees with us and joins the other platforms in banning Trump, we will go to advertisers,” he added. “We join with our coalition partners in calling for YouTube to act decisively to help stop the spread of hate by closing Trump’s account,” the NAACP said in a statement to Reuters. The NAACP, Anti-Defamation League, and Color of Change along with Steyer’s group Common Sense Media are among the organizers of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which had recruited major advertisers, including Verizon Communications (NYSE 🙂 and Unilever (NYSE 🙂 to remove its Facebook ads due to concerns about hate speech.
