Civil Rights Groups Slam Facebook For “Lackluster Response” To Hate Speech

Facebook’s controversial policy on political ads came under fire once again this week, this time from a collection of civil rights groups who said Facebook is not adequately addressing their concerns about hate speech.

These groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and NAACP, met with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month to share their thoughts on both how Facebook handles hate speech and its new policy of allowing politicians to run ads with fake content. They also sent a follow-up letter explaining their positions. However, after Facebook didn’t act to their satisfaction, they took their criticisms public.

“Our communities are being targeted by bad actors on Facebook and the company has a moral obligation to fix this ongoing problem,” the groups said in a statement to CNN Business. “Facebook’s lackluster response to our serious concerns is devoid of any commitments to implement substantive measures and changes to its policies.”

The groups also added that Facebook “appears to be unwilling to police its platform and enact sufficient measures on its own to protect our democracy and vulnerable communities” and that “unless meaningful change happens, Facebook must be held to account by outside forces and measures, including legislation, regulation, strong enforcement, and litigation.”

It’s hard to change Facebook’s position on these big topics — but the more pressure the company receives, the more likely it is that it will one day listen.




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