A leading organiser of Stop Funding Hate, the group who arranged an advertising boycott of GB News, has a history of sharing “anti-Semitic” content online. According to The Telegraph, Amanda Morris, a community organiser for Stop Funding Hate, expressed sympathy for Hamas and repeated the controversial slogan “From the River to the Sea”. The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was hard to square these anti-Semitic “red flags” with Stop Funding Hate’s aims. In this context, it’s worth taking a look at all the corporations that publicly backed the bogus GB News boycott:
- Kopparberg
- Nivea
- Grolsch
- The Open University
- Ikea
- OVO Energy
- Liverpool Victoria
- Vodafone
- Bosch
- Indeed
- Octopus Energy
- Specsavers
Will they distance themselves from the ironically-named Stop Funding Hate as quickly as they did from GB News…
On Monday Guido reported on anti-press freedom cranks Stop Funding Hate targeting much-loved children’s charity the NSPCC in their hellbent crusade to stamp out free discussion and debate in Britain’s media. The mask slipped and the true nature of the group was revealed…
In this morning’s Sun Boris takes apart Stop Funding Hate’s anti-freedom campaign, lambasting “cowardly” Paperchase and Pizza Hut for capitulating to a few hundred Twitter trolls:
“A small but dedicated group of left-wing activists has launched a campaign to undermine the financial base of some newspapers whose views they dislike. They have attacked the advertisers who help to fund those newspapers, and who make it possible for reporters to bring new facts into the public domain. The tactic of this campaign – misleadingly called “Stop Funding Hate” – is to urge a boycott of all companies who place advertisements in the Sun, the Daily Mail or the Daily Express. This week they even attacked the NSPCC – a much loved national charity – for the sin of running a promotion in the Sunday Express. It is deeply disturbing to learn that this campaign is beginning to have an effect. Last year Lego dropped all advertising in the Daily Mail, and actually apologised to its customers. In recent weeks Paperchase and Pizza Hut have followed suit. I believe that these decisions are sad and mistaken and indeed cowardly.
“It is not as if this internet campaign commands overwhelming public support. Despite all the noise and virulence of their campaign, there are said to be fewer than a thousand people who are actively involved. And these companies should realise that they are bowing to a ruse – the attack on advertisers – that comes straight from some of the worst authoritarian regimes in the world. As for those who are mounting the campaigns, they do not seem to appreciate the irony of what they are doing. They may not like the editorial line of these publications, or the way in which they cover certain issues. But this country has the world’s strongest laws against libel and defamation. We have highly progressive legislation against hate speech and the whipping up of prejudice of any kind. By attempting to drive some newspapers underground they risk fomenting a further sense of alienation in the public – and pushing some into the arms of extremists. They are not sticking up for liberal values. They are not sticking up for freedom. They are attacking the freedom which is the foundation of our democracy. They should remember the great French sage Voltaire, who summed up the approach that has served Britain well for generations. “I may not agree with what you say. But I defend to the death your right to say it.”
Well said…
Stop Funding Hate, the anti-press freedom campaign behind advertising boycotts of newspapers, has plumbed new depths this morning – hounding the NSPCC on Twitter. The children’s charity ran a promotion in the Sunday Express yesterday, causing Stop Funding Hate to tweet out the NSPCC’s handle and attempt to set their Twitter trolls on them. The NSPCC often runs campaigns and promotions in newspapers – it runs a ‘Block the Bullying’ campaign in the Sun for example. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Stop Funding Hate are opposed to anti-bullying campaigns.
The NSPCC knows appealing to millions of Sun and Express readers for support and donations is a sensible way to help children – yet the cranks at Stop Funding Hate want their army of vicious trolls to target them for it. The mask slips on this nasty press freedom-hating campaign…
How’s this for more glorious hypocrisy from the press-hating cranks at Stop Funding Hate? The group’s founder Richard Wilson accepted £1,000 for the serialisation rights of his book… from the Daily Mail. The anti-press freedom campaigner agreed to the deal for a 2006 tome. He hates Britain’s popular papers so much he wanted to feature in one…
Stationery store Paperchase is facing a backlash from angry customers after bowing to pressure from anti-press freedom cranks not to offer promotions in the Daily Mail. On Saturday Paperchase offered Mail readers two rolls of free wrapping paper. The promotion was attacked by the anti-press freedom loonies at Stop Funding Hate, a group whose stated aim is to censor or bankrupt the free press in Britain. It would not only be pathetic for Paperchase to listen to the Stop Funding Hate extremists, it would be dangerous too…
We’ve listened to you about this weekend’s newspaper promotion. We now know we were wrong to do this – we’re truly sorry and we won’t ever do it again. Thanks for telling us what you really think and we apologise if we have let you down on this one. Lesson learnt.
— Paperchase (@FromPaperchase) November 20, 2017
Yet today Paperchase gave in to the SFH nuts and apologised for Saturday’s promotion, promising not to advertise with the Mail again. The tweet has had over a thousand replies, with hundreds of unimpressed customers now threatening to buy their cards in Clintons in protest at Paperchase’s spinelessness.
I for one am happy to lead a boycott of @FromPaperchase for making this absurd grovelling apology simply for advertising in a national newspaper. Bloody absurd. https://t.co/cUAf9RGf75
— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) November 20, 2017
I hope readers of the Daily Mail understand that @FromPaperchase think you are a bunch of racists. They are sorry to advertise with the paper you read. Just think about that. https://t.co/rWPq5xI5cB
— Laura Perrins (@LPerrins) November 20, 2017
Twitter has made total cowards of corporate brands. The latest being @FromPaperchase – who seem to have panicked after looking at their social media account and have since grovelled for having advertised in the Mail.
— Christian May (@ChristianJMay) November 20, 2017
Paperchase apologises for advertising in a British newspaper. I won’t shop there ever again. https://t.co/o2ES4vRhfO
— Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) November 20, 2017
Almost literally unbelievable. Paperchase apologises for running a promotion in the Daily Mail, Britain’s most successful newspaper. Shame on you @FromPaperchase. https://t.co/B81ZFMkyBs
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) November 20, 2017
Pathetic – Clintons for me now https://t.co/NPa8RHFOqj
— Tim Montgomerie ن (@montie) November 20, 2017
The Saturday Daily Mail sold 1.86 million in October, making it Britain’s best selling newspaper. Stop Funding Hate’s mental Twitter trolls number a few hundred at most. Not just pathetic and dangerous from Paperchase, stupid too…
