Facebook should 'take the hit' to its finances and tackle advertisers' concerns, Jim Cramer says

• Facebook should "take the hit" to its finances and invest in the technology and manpower needed to properly moderate its platform, "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer said on CNBC on Tuesday.
• Best Buy, Coca-Cola, Verizon, and other large companies have joined an advertiser boycott, pausing their social-media spending to protest issues such as hate speech, misinformation, and voter suppression.
• "Facebook has been trying to get away with this for a long time, and this seems to be one of those moments where big corporate America is not gonna take it anymore," Cramer said.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that his company has already invested in platform moderation, and it recently introduced stricter content policies.
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Facebook should stomach the costs of stamping out bad behavior on its platform, "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer said on CNBC on Tuesday.

The social-media titan should invest in the artificial intelligence and the staff needed to properly moderate its platform, Cramer said.

"Maybe costs a couple billion. But you know what, take the hit."

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Dozens of high-profile companies have pledged to pause advertising on Facebook — and other social-media websites in some cases — to protest issues such as hate speech, misinformation, and voter suppression.

Best Buy, Coca-Cola, Ford, Starbucks, Verizon, and others have vowed to halt their spending. The movement is being spearheaded by civil-rights groups and their Stop Hate For Profit campaign.

"Facebook has been trying to get away with this for a long time, and this seems to be one of those moments where big corporate America is not gonna take it anymore," Cramer said on CNBC.

"The time has come," he continued. "History is turning against them. Why not do what's right?"

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Facebook has announced several adjustments to its policies in recent days. They include labeling ads about voting to direct viewers to accurate information, tagging posts by public figures that violate its policies as "newsworthy" enough to not take down, and banning a wider range of hateful language.

Moreover, the company is already taking the steps that Cramer outlined, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post last week.

"We've invested heavily in both AI systems and human review teams so that now we identify almost 90% of the hate speech we remove before anyone even reports it to us," he said.

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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Cramer pointed the finger at Facebook's bosses on CNBC. He said its board members — which include Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen — aren't doing enough to address its problems.

"They don't give a damn," he said. "They're making a lot of money."

Facebook's stock price has skyrocketed about 500% since it went public in 2012, boosting its market capitalization to about $650 billion today.

Investors wiped about $55 billion off Facebook's market cap last Friday as the advertiser boycott gained momentum, but its shares have regained ground in the past two days.