After meeting with Facebook executives on Tuesday, civil rights activists behind a growing advertising boycott of the world’s largest social network said they aren’t convinced Facebook …
After meeting with Facebook executives on Tuesday, civil rights activists behind a growing advertising boycott of the world’s largest social network said they aren’t convinced Facebook is doing enough to combat hate speech.
Last month, a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Free Press and Color of Change, called on businesses to «hit pause on hate» and not advertise on Facebook during the month of July. Tuesday morning, activists met virtually with executives including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg and with members of the policy team.
«#StopHateForProfit didn’t hear anything today to convince us that Zuckerberg and his colleagues are taking action. Instead of committing to a timeline to root out hate and disinformation on Facebook, the company’s leaders delivered the same old talking points to try to placate us without meeting our demands,» Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González said in a statement.
Facebook said it has rules against hate speech on its platform but is trying to do more to combat hateful content and misinformation. After the meeting, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone shared a statement from the company in a tweet.
«This meeting was an opportunity for us to hear from the campaign organizers and reaffirm our commitment to combating hate on our platform,» the statement said. «They want Facebook to be free of hate speech and so do we. That’s why it’s so important that we work to get this right.»
Despite Facebook’s vow to do better, civil rights activists say they haven’t seen enough meaningful change, especially in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Conspiracy theories and misinformation about Floyd have spread on social networks, including false claims that Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros orchestrated protests over Floyd’s death.
