Coca‑Cola to Pause All Social Media Activity in July

The Coca‑Cola Company will pause paid and organic posts on all social media platforms globally for at least 30 days, effective July 1, Chairman and CEO James Quincey announced on Friday. 

“There is no place for racism in the world, and there is no place for racism on social media,” Quincey said in a statement. “We will take this time to reassess our advertising policies to determine whether revisions are needed. We also expect greater accountability and transparency from our social media partners.”

Coca‑Cola joins a growing list of major brands pulling advertising from social media amid concerns over hate speech and misinformation and calling on social networks to implement stricter measures to rid its platforms of hate, violence and inappropriate content. The company’s action is more broad-based across social media platforms than the #StopHateForProfit boycott – which Coca‑Cola has not joined – and is intentionally open-ended for now.

“It’s too early to commit to how long our pause will last,” Quincey said. “We will need at least 30 days to review where we are today and where we need to drive additional action. This will allow us to reassess our own policies and procedures and engage our social media partners in an effort to provide a safer, hate-free environment for our consumers to experience our brands.”

A cross-functional and cross-continental team will review the company’s Responsible Digital Media Principles, agency partner industry principles and other partner agreement terms and conditions to see what, if any, changes need to be made; communicate and ensure adherence to the principles for all social media partners. This will include clear expectations and timelines for action, monitoring and third-party audits.

“Where we determine our principles are not being upheld, we will act,” Quincey said.

The company also will continue to provide feedback and a leadership voice within key industry organizations, including the World Federation of Advertisers and the Association of National Advertising, to drive governance and accountability across digital platforms.

“This is a journey, and we believe we can use our collective voices to drive faster change with better transparency,” Quincey said.