Lush quits Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat over safety concerns – The Guardian

Lush has announced it is closing its accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok until the social media sites do a better job of protecting users from harmful content.The campaigning beauty retailer said it had “had enough” after the allegations of the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who claims the company puts profit ahead of the public good.The Lush chief digital officer, Jack Constantine, said the company would not ask customers to “meet us down a dark and dangerous alleyway”, adding that some social media platforms were “beginning to feel like places no one should be encouraged to go … Something has to change.”Constantine said the company spent a lot of time inventing products to help people to unwind and look after themselves. Social media platforms had become the antithesis of this, he argued, with algorithms designed to “keep people scrolling and stop them from switching off and relaxing”.The Poole-based retailer, best known for its fragrant soaps and bath bombs, has run campaigns over the years linked to social causes, with subjects ranging from the targeting of activists by undercover police officers to preventing the extinction of hen harriers.“When it gets to a point that our customers’ wellbeing is being put…
Read More