Facebook will not remove the pro-Trump Breitbart News website from its network of advertisers, according to an email that Facebook marketing executive Carolyn Everson sent to an activist group.
The liberal activist group Sleeping Giants said on its own Facebook page it had sent an inquiry to Everson asking the company remove Breitbart ads Facebook places throughout the web, because the publication “peddles violent, white supremacist views.”
Sleeping Giants said Everson responded in an email Tuesday.
In the email, Everson thanked Sleeping Giants for raising the issue, but said “it’s important to remember that not all disagreeable or unpopular speech violates our community standards or audience network policies.”
She also noted websites that do not want certain ads to appear on their pages by way of the Facebook network can block them individually.
Sleeping Giant responded in another Facebook post Tuesday, saying Everson’s response “is evidence for advertisers, marketing agencies and media buyers that they cannot rely on Facebook to place their brands responsibly across the Facebook Audience Network.”
Alex Marlow, editor in chief of Breitbart, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday from the Washington Examiner.
Breitbart frequently publishes controversial commentary by conservative and right-leaning writers, most memorably the provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who resigned from the site in February.
Former White House strategic adviser Steve Bannon is the chairman of Breitbart.
