Drain the ‘swamp’ or lose advertising

Zhang Peng | Getty Images

Unilever’s Dove bath foam, seen in a Chinese supermarket

Unilever has threatened to boycott Facebook and Google if the tech giants fail to efficiently police extremist and illegal content.

“We need to redefine what is responsible business in the digital age because for all of the good the tech companies are doing, there’s some unintended consequences that now need addressing,” Keith Weed, chief marketing officer at Unilever, said Monday.

In a speech delivered at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership meeting in Palm Desert, California, Weed said tech companies were to blame for creating a “swamp” in which fake news and criminal content were being circulated.

Unilever, which makes Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Dove soap, said the tech space needed to review transparency measures and improve consumer trust in an era of illegal content.