| Friend,
Racism is rampant on Facebook — and this week offered the latest proof that Mark Zuckerberg just doesn't care.
Four leaders of the #StopHateForProfit Facebook advertising boycott, including Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González, met with Zuckerberg and other Facebook execs on Tuesday. It was clear that the Facebook team wanted a gold star simply for showing up — showing no concern about any of our demands.
Then yesterday a damning civil-rights audit showed that Facebook has done way too little to combat hate and disinformation.
Tell Mark Zuckerberg: Enough is enough. Facebook's racism needs to stop TODAY.
Thanks!
Heather
|
| Friend,
Mark Zuckerberg is having a bad week.
In case you’ve missed the headlines, Zuckerberg met with our co-CEO Jessica J. González along with the CEOs of ADL, Color Of Change and the NAACP on Tuesday in response to the #StopHateForProfit campaign. Spoiler: It didn’t go well. Facebook offered the same old tired talking points and wanted a gold star simply for showing up.
Then the next day, Facebook released its final civil-rights audit, which condemned the company for doing way too little to combat hate and disinformation.
Tell Mark Zuckerberg: Enough is enough. Facebook's racism needs to stop TODAY.
While we don’t know what Facebook will do next, we do know that the success of the #StopHateForProfit campaign — which more than 1,000 companies are participating in — is thanks to the racial-justice uprisings and the movement for Black lives.
Facebook is one part of a long story of harm that media and tech companies have perpetrated against Black people. These companies play an integral role in reinforcing white supremacy. This happens both internally — through discrimination and the sidelining of Black staff — as well as through policy decisions.
In June, a New York Times reporter asked Zuckerberg whether he consulted any Black employees in the decision to keep Donald Trump’s racist and violent posts up. He named one, and, according to the Times, the staffer said that he felt that “the company’s political speech policy wasn’t working and needed to be changed.”1 Zuckerberg ignored him.
It’s this kind of racist decision-making that upholds oppression, and makes Facebook a hospitable place for white supremacists to organize. Demand that Zuckerberg put human rights first or resign.
Thanks for all that you do—
Heather and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net
P.S. Demand that Facebook enforce its own policies and ban users, including President Trump, who refuse to follow the company’s policies. 1. “Zuckerberg Defends Hands-Off Approach to Trump’s Posts,” The New York Times, June 2, 2020 |
