SAN FRANCISCO — The company behind Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Dove soap and a host of other consumer products said Friday it will stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the U.S. through at least the end of the year because of the amount of hate speech online.

Unilever said that the polarized atmosphere in the United States ahead of November’s presidential election placed responsibility on brands to act.

The company, which is based in the Netherlands and Britain, joins a raft of other companies halting advertising on online platforms. Facebook in particular has been the target of an escalating movement to siphon away advertising dollars in a bid to pressure the social media-giant to do more to prevent racist and violent content from being shared on its platform.

“We have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.,” Unilever said. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society.”

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Verizon joined others in the Facebook boycott.

Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, said the company’s “mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely.”

She added that Twitter is “respectful of our partners’ decisions and will continue to work and communicate closely with them during this time.”

Nike posts loss after virus forced store closures

NEW YORK — Nike lost $790 million in the fourth quarter, as soaring digital sales couldn’t make up for the loss of revenue from shuttered stores in most of the world.

The world’s largest sports apparel maker said Thursday that its revenue fell 38 percent to $6.31 billion in the three-month period ending May 31. That was well below the $7.26 billion in revenue expected by Wall Street analysts, according to a survey by Zacks.

The Beaverton, Oregon-based company’s quarterly loss amounted to 51 cents per share.

Nike said 90 percent of its stores in North America, Europe, Latin America were closed during the period because of the coronavirus pandemic. Sales fell 46 percent in both North America and Europe but just 3 percent in China as stores reopened there. Revenue grew 1 percent in China when accounting for currency fluctuations.

Nike said about 90 percent of its directly owned stores are now open worldwide, including all of its stores in China.