Is Starbucks “funding a genocide”? If you spend time on TikTok, you could be forgiven for thinking so, given that viral video after viral video has parroted this claim as part of a social media campaign targeting the company over its alleged support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
But this widespread belief has no basis in reality. It still may be hurting the company, however, which reportedly performed disastrously in the most recent quarter, in part due to declining customer traffic, and has had to slash jobs in its Middle East locations. It’s impossible to say from the outside how much of this is related to the boycotts, yet they certainly can’t be helping.