It turns out that people don’t depend on their coffee provider for political opinions and moralizing.
Starbucks has been trying to re-educate its customers using its Facebook page, and is finding the reactions so cold and bitter that it is reportedly considering ending its Facebook presence as a result of “hateful comments” being posted when it tries to help less-enlightened people with the way they should be thinking.
An internal memo obtained by Buzzfeed shows the concern within Starbucks about the Facebook reactions.
The company posts information about its beverages on the page, followed by 35 million people, but also offers unsolicited commentary on hot media causes like the conviction of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd and a supposed wave of anti-Asian assaults across the United States.
“Starbucks is in the process of evaluating their organic presence on FB, and whether they should continue to have a presence on the platform at all,” a Facebook employee wrote to colleagues recently.
“Anytime they post (organically) in regards to social issues or their mission & values work (e.g. BLM, LGBTQ, sustainability/climate change, etc.) they are overwhelmed by negative/insensitive, hate speech related comments on their posts.”
The Facebook employee said that Starbucks was having difficulty moderating the torrent of abuse, and was unable to disable comments on its page.
“Just stop it and stick to coffee,” said one woman.
Another said the company is “dancing over graves for political points.”
Leaving no doubt as to its political agenda, the social media giant last week ruled that Donald Trump’s page could not be restored, amid fears about what it calls his power to incite violence.
