By Dru Barcelo
Breitbart, a company that most would consider to be a sexist, racist, homophobic, and anti-Muslim website that enthusiastically promotes fake news and white nationalism, has continued to receive advertising from some of the world’s largest companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
With anti-Breitbart organizations on the prowl attempting to get these ads removed, the question of the justification of this action must be raised. As news consumers, it’s important to be mindful of the fact that the First Amendment protects free speech in general, not just speech that we agree with.
No other media outlet is more closely tied to the Trump administration than Breitbart, which is where much of the hate for the organization stems from. Last August, Trump tapped Breitbart editor and supposed white nationalist, Steven Bannon, to become his campaign chief. Now Trump’s Chief Strategist, Bannon plays a leading role in implementing much of the legislation that is currently a large topic of controversy.
In addition to Bannon, in late January, Trump added two more Breitbart staffers to his administration. As Breitbart’s prominence grows, so has the list of organizations who seek to undermine them.
Organizations such as the Sleeping Giants, which aims to persuade companies to pull ads from news outlets that promote “bigotry, sexism, and racism,” seek to remove the ads Google places for more than a thousand companies on Breitbart through its AdSense service.
These ads are placed in spite of the fact that AdSense’s policies prohibit ads from being “placed on pages that contain harassing or bullying content, or on content that incites hatred or promotes violence against individuals or groups.”
If these AdSense policies have yet to identify Breitbart as a page containing content that infringes upon these policies, there is justification for organizations to seek to have these ads removed.
As Facebook’s representative Tom Channick explained, “We purchase ads through third party networks to reach as many people as possible. People visit different sites and we want to connect with all of them, independent of political affiliation or beliefs. We are not changing our advertising buys at this time.”
Facebook has tried to be bipartisan and remain unaffiliated in an attempt to reach all audiences, regardless of their beliefs.
According to representative Suzanne Blackburn, Google “review[s] sites on a regular basis for policy compliance.” Blackburn also mentioned that Google encourages “users to let us know when they come across ads or sites that they believe are in violation of our policies.”
If Google has not since removed such ads and continues to see whatever news Breitbart produces as justified under their policies, then there should be no reason for the removal of these advertisements. Advertisers are free to put their ads wherever they please. If consumers don’t like where some places advertise, they don’t have to visit those cites; the same way those who don’t agree with Breitbart don’t have to read their content.
Breitbart should have full freedom to publish content that they feel is significant, and to exercise their First Amendment right, even if some don’t agree with their perspective. If the companies that advertise with Breitbart don’t see any infringements in policy, it should be left to them to keep advertising.
