The downfall of the Stop For Hate movement?

In order to detect the attitude of organizations in Croatia towards the #StopForHate campaign, the boycott of advertising on Facebook-owned platforms and to help decision makers in planning and implementing communication, in August we launched another #DialogKnows survey which was based on 50 respondents.

Only a quarter of respondents supported the campaign

The majority (86.2%) had heard of the #StopForHate movement, and the information was mostly obtained through social networks (44.9%), portals (26.5%) and in conversations with associates or other people are interested in topic (26.5%).

Although the campaign received a lot of media publicity, according to the survey, as many as 42.6% of companies in Croatia decided not to participate in it, while 25.5% of them joined the movement. Slightly more than a third of respondents (31.9%) have not yet made a decision. The reason for this may lie in the fact that slightly more than half of the respondents (56.3%) think that companies that have decided to join the movement with such an attitude cannot profit, while 43.7% of them have the opposite attitude.

The boycott will not shake Facebook

As a reason for joining the movement, the majority of respondents (73.9%) state the improvement of the company’s reputation. It is also interesting that the majority of respondents (60.4%) believe that companies use this opportunity as an excuse to reduce the budget due to poor economic indicators and forecasts.

Facebook’s reaction to the movement was, to put it mildly, lukewarm, which is surprising considering that over 400 brands, including Coca-Cola and Starbucks, joined the #StopForHate campaign. The majority of respondents (45.1%) support Facebook’s position, 23.5% of them do not justify such a reaction, and 31.4% have a neutral position on it.

Whether they consider Facebook’s reaction appropriate or not, the majority (66.7%) of respondents think that the #StopForHate movement will still contribute to the removal of hate speech and racist content.

If the boycott continues during the fall, 40% of companies will continue their support, while the same number will give up. The majority of respondents (75%) are of the opinion that the boycott will not have long-term consequences on Facebook platforms.