Sonos to Pause Facebook Ads and More for a Week, Will Donate Funds to Digital Rights Conference

Following the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal, Sonos says it will pause their digital advertising for a week, to instead donate the money instead to the digital rights conference RightsCon, held by their Listen Better grantee, Access Now.

In an emailed statement to iPhone in Canada, Sonos said “we’ve decided to temporarily suspend all of our digital advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube and Twitter.”

The Sonos Facebook and Instagram accounts will also “go dark” next week, “in solidarity with those seeking to build a healthier, more consumer-friendly tech ecosystem.”

The company says it won’t stop advertising on digital platforms permanently, because they are still effective in reaching customers.

The temporary Sonos move was trolled sarcastically by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently deleted both Tesla and Space X Facebook pages, after being dared by followers.

Wow, a whole week. Risky …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018

Sonos responded to Musk on Twitter to say “well done on taking down your pages. How about also joining us at @rightscon with activists who will actually make a difference?”

Sonos concludes to say “The gesture we are making this week, while small, is meant to meaningfully support the growth of an ecosystem of groups working solely for the social good when it comes to tech.”