Shareholders in Home Depot and the advertising giant Omnicom have filed resolutions asking the companies to investigate whether the money they spent on advertisements may have helped spread hate speech and misinformation.
The resolutions were filed in November but were not made public until Monday. They were coordinated by Open MIC, a nonprofit group that works with shareholders at media and technology companies.
The two shareholder resolutions, which used similar language, asked Home Depot and Omnicom to commission independent investigations into whether their advertising policies “contribute to the spread of hate speech, disinformation, white supremacist activity, or voter suppression efforts.”
“Advertisers are not passive bystanders when they inadvertently finance harm,” the resolutions said. “Their spending influences what content appears online.”