Coke Deletes Mention of Black Lives Matter From Website After Pro-Palestine Posts

The Coca-Cola Company scrubbed mentions of Black Lives Matter from its website after a controversial post by the group’s Chicago chapter appeared to be supporting Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians earlier this month.

The company reportedly had included mention of a $500,000 donation made to the Black Lives Matter Global Network in support of the group’s voting education and youth programs on its website. The reference to the group appears to have been quietly removed from its page, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a post on X Friday.

A spokesperson for Sen. Cruz confirmed to The Messenger that congressional investigators on the Senate Commerce Committee verified that the changes to Coca-Cola's website were made on Oct. 19.

Cruz criticized Coca-Cola, along with Amazon, DoorDash and Microsoft, among others, for their donations to BLM on his podcast, Verdict, on Thursday. “On Verdict, we name names and blast corporate America for standing with Marxists who celebrated Hamas's mass murder of Israelis,” Cruz wrote in a post on X. 

In a now-deleted X post, BLM Chicago shared an image depicting a stick-figure using a paraglider with the Palestinian flag. The image read “I stand with Palestine,” and the group captioned its post, “That is all that is it!”

The post, which caused a firestorm on social media, came after Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack in Israel in which Hamas militants reportedly used paragliders to cross the border into Israel and attack Israelis at a music festival.

Coca-Cola and BLM did not immediately respond to The Messenger's request for comment.

The attacks resulted in the majority of deaths of the 1,400 Israelis that have been killed. At least 4,651 people in Gaza were killed in retaliatory attacks from Israel, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. 

In response to the backlash over its post, BLM Chicago said in an Oct. 11 post: “Yesterday we sent out msgs [messages] that we aren’t proud of. We stand with Palestine & the people who will do what they must to live free. Our hearts are with, the grieving mothers, those rescuing babies from rubble, who are in danger of being wiped out completely.”

“Your position is clear,” X owner Elon Musk had commented on BLM Chicago's original post, with others calling the group's support for Palestine "disgusting" and "evil."