Dejen de financiar el odio

Stop Funding Hate es un grupo de presión que pide a las empresas que dejen de anunciarse en ciertos periódicos británicos y, por lo tanto, de financiarlos, argumentando que utilizan "el miedo y la división para vender más periódicos". ^{[ 2 ]}

La campaña Stop Funding Hate fue creada en agosto de 2016 por Richard Wilson, exfuncionario de recaudación de fondos corporativos de Amnistía Internacional . La campaña obtuvo más de 70 000 "me gusta" en su página de Facebook en los primeros tres días de actividad ^{[ 2 ]} y el vídeo de lanzamiento de la campaña fue visto más de 6 millones de veces. ^{[ 3 ]} En febrero de 2017, Stop Funding Hate lanzó una campaña de financiación colectiva para recaudar fondos, consiguiendo finalmente 102 721 libras esterlinas. ^{[ 4 ] [ 5 ]}

La campaña ha pedido a empresas como Aldi , Asda , Barclays , British Airways , Co-op UK , Gillette , Iceland , John Lewis , Lego , Marks & Spencer , Morrisons , Virgin Media y Waitrose que dejen de anunciarse en periódicos como The Sun , Daily Mail y Daily Express . ^{[ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]}

La campaña Stop Funding Hate, dirigida a Virgin Media , afirmaba que sus valores estaban "totalmente reñidos con el historial de información engañosa de The Sun", y fue firmada por más de 40.000 personas. Tras su cobertura del fallo del Tribunal Superior de noviembre sobre el Brexit , los anunciantes del Daily Mail fueron blanco de la campaña y sus partidarios utilizando el hashtag #StopFundingHate. ^{[ 9 ]} En una campaña navideña de Stop Funding Hate, el grupo publicó un anuncio satírico al estilo de los anuncios navideños de John Lewis , pidiendo a la tienda departamental que dejara de anunciarse en ciertos periódicos. ^{[ 10 ]}

En agosto de 2017, Stop Funding Hate llevó a cabo su primera campaña callejera en colaboración con la organización benéfica de justicia social Citizens UK . La campaña se dirigió a operadores de redes móviles como BT Mobile , EE Limited , O2 , Sky Mobile , Tesco Mobile y Virgin Mobile UK con el eslogan "Empieza a difundir el amor". ^{[ 11 ]}

En febrero de 2020, Stop Funding Hate se unió a I Am Here International en una acción del Día de San Valentín para combatir el odio y el extremismo, inspirada por el fundador de la campaña #ExtinguishHate iniciada por Darryn Frost, el hombre que se defendió de un terrorista en el apuñalamiento del Puente de Londres de 2019 usando un colmillo de narval . ^{[ 12 ]}

En mayo de 2020, Stop Funding Hate instó a las organizaciones a retirar su publicidad de OpIndia , un sitio web indio de extrema derecha , después de que publicara un artículo que afirmaba que las empresas deberían poder declarar que no contratan a musulmanes. ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ]}

En febrero de 2021, Stop Funding Hate anunció su boicot al próximo canal de noticias de televisión GB News , basándose en especulaciones sobre lo que representaría la estación. ^{[ 15 ]}

En septiembre de 2016, Specsavers retiró un anuncio del Daily Express después de que cientos de personas, entre ellas Stop Funding Hate, se quejaran de que estaba financiando "el miedo y la división". ^{[ 16 ]}

Gary Lineker showed support for the campaign, saying that he had spoken to Walkers about their advertisements in The Sun.^[17] Following calls from the campaign and its supporters, Lego announced in November 2016 that it was ending its advertising with the Daily Mail, stating they were "not planning any future promotional activity with the newspaper", making it the first company to end its advertising in one of the targeted newspapers since the campaign's inception.^[18] In February 2017, the internet service provider Plusnet withdrew adverts from The Sun and The Body Shop announced they had no future plans to advertise in the Daily Mail after social media criticism.^[19][20] In November 2017, Paperchase also announced that they would stop advertising in the Daily Mail, saying that they had "listened to customers".^[21]

A campaign which targeted The Co-operative Group led to their chief executive Richard Pennycook saying in 2016 that they would be "looking at our advertising for next year to see whether we can align it more closely with our natural sources of support rather than more generic media advertising".^[22] However, in a 2017 update by Nick Crofts, President of the National Members' Council, it was stated that after investigation, "Many people buy these papers at the Co-op and some of them will be our members. Advertising in these papers also drives sales which are important to our businesses".^[23]

Virgin Trains West Coast stopped selling the Daily Mail onboard the trains which it operates in conjunction with Stagecoach Group in November 2017. After criticisms that the move censored the newspapers that passengers could read, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Rail Group, reinstated the paper in January 2018. Speaking in a statement on his own behalf and that of Stagecoach chairman Brian Souter, Branson said: "Brian and I agree that we must not ever be seen to be censoring what our customers read and influencing their freedom of choice. Nor must we be seen to be moralising on behalf of others. Instead we should stand up for the values we hold dear and defend them publicly, as I have done with the Mail on many issues over the years."^[24]

In addition to the £102,721 initially raised, a further crowdfunding campaign generated £80,251 from supporters in January 2018.^[25] The campaign that finished in March 2019 raised £5,067 against a target of £45,000.^[26]

Accounts filed at Companies House with a balance sheet date of 30 April 2018 showed that Stop Funding Hate had current assets of £130,549 and owed £130,549 to creditors. It had zero net assets and zero reserves.^[27]

The Community Interest Company Report (CIC 34) filed with the annual accounts showed that the Stop Funding Hate board had been remunerated.^[27]

Writing for the Press Gazette, Dominic Ponsford criticised Stop Funding Hate and its campaigners for "encouraging people to influence the content of newspapers they do not read themselves", and raised concerns about advertisers influencing the content of newspapers.^[28] In a response to Ponsford's article, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff argued that Ponsford did not consider the "total vacuum of responsibility within the journalism world when it comes to how our content is going to affect our audience".^[29]

In Spiked, Naomi Firsht described the campaign as "entirely about censorship", arguing that consumers should simply not buy newspapers if they disagree with their content.^[30] Writing in The Spectator, Brendan O'Neill described the campaign "elitist, repugnant and illiberal, as are all attempts at press censorship".^[31]

In an article for UnHerd, conservative author Douglas Murray accused the group of "using a deliberately vague definition of 'hate'" and only targeting what it perceives to be right-leaning media, claiming "its modus operandi is always the same: it identifies a conservative outlet full of "hate", and then lobbies its advertisers to pull their cash — thus eliminating one of the major revenue streams of the free press."^[32]

Media columnist Ian Burrell of the i newspaper wrote that the campaign to boycott GB News fed into the channel's belief that there is a cancel culture.^[33] Stop Funding Hate responded to allegations of censorship by saying that they "fully support freedom of choice & are not calling for any publication to be removed from sale".^[34] The Daily Mail, responding to Paperchase's decision to cease advertising with them, described Stop Funding Hate as "a small group of hard left Corbynist individuals seeking to suppress legitimate debate and impose their views on the media".^[21]

In August 2021, Stop Funding Hate was accused of breaching company laws by engaging in "political activity" by Members of UK Parliament in a letter to the British Secretary of State for Business Kwasi Kwarteng.^[35] In the letter, the Members of Parliament said: "We are concerned that since 2017 the campaign group Stop Funding Hate has been exploiting the prestige that is afforded by CIC status, and the privileged access that CICs have to many grants of taxpayers money, for overtly political means."^[36]

Stop Funding Hate is registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC), a type of organisation which should not be formed for political purposes. A spokesman for the Department of Business said: "We expect all Community Interest Companies to act in accordance with their legal obligations, and are clear that they should not be formed for political purposes, or have engagement in political activities among their main objectives".^[37] Stop Funding Hate did not respond to the criticism from Members of Parliament at the time.

In July 2024, Stop Funding Hate announced that it would become a Company Limited by Guarantee, ending its CIC status and merging with its sister (climate-focused) campaign Stop Funding Heat.^[38]

• Sleeping Giants
• Center for Countering Digital Hate

• Sitio web oficial
• Richard Wilson en IMDb