Lego joins the social media ad boycott

• Lego announced Tuesday it's pausing all its ads on social media for at least 30 days while it reviews its advertising standards.
• "We are committed to having a positive impact on children and the world they will inherit. That includes contributing to a positive, inclusive digital environment free from hate speech, discrimination and misinformation," said Lego's chief marketing officer.
• Lego joins an ever-growing list of brands boycotting social media in protest of hate speech and misinformation on its platforms.

Lego has joined the ever-snowballing list of brands pulling their advertising off social media.

"We are committed to having a positive impact on children and the world they will inherit. That includes contributing to a positive, inclusive digital environment free from hate speech, discrimination and misinformation," Lego's chief marketing officer Julia Goldin said in a statement published Wednesday.

"We will take immediate steps to carefully review the standards we apply to advertising and engagement on global social media platforms. While we do that, we will pause all paid advertising on global social media platforms for at least 30 days," she added.

The social media ad boycott has been gaining steam since June 17, when a group of six non-profit organizations wrote an open letter calling for advertisers to boycott Facebook.

Since then a swathe of huge companies including Coca-Cola, Verizon, and Best Buy have said they're removing their ads from social media platforms for the interim.

On Tuesday a survey of the top 58 advertisers indicated that almost a third are considering pausing their social media advertising as part of the boycott.

The original open letter followed Facebook's handling of a post from President Donald Trump.

In late May, as the George Floyd protests were starting to take root, Trump tweeted about protesters in Minneapolis: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."

While Twitter decided to place the tweet behind a block warning users that it broke the platform's rules on glorifying violence, Facebook decided to leave the equivalent post untouched on its own platform, prompting outrage from civil rights groups and Facebook's own employees.