In the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election last month, Facebook came under intense scrutiny for its policies surrounding hate speech and misinformation. And the pressure for the social media giant to clean up its act is only intensifying. This week, Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine publicly blasted Facebook and other tech companies for allowing hate speech to flourish.

According to Racine, Facebook and other tech platforms “host, facilitate and accept money from hate organizations and individuals who literally are spewing their toxic hate throughout the internet and without question are inspiring violence.” He also called their response to these problems “pathetic.”

Racine went on to note that lawmakers and advocates need to continue pressing Facebook to do the right thing, because the company will never make the decision to improve on its own.

“They react and change policy when they are under pressure,” he continued. “Left to their own devices they will tell everyone… that they are already doing it.”

Between stinging criticisms like this and calls from prominent lawmakers to break up its operations, 2021 is already shaping up to be a rough year for Facebook. Here’s hoping the company is forced to actually improve the way it treats users.

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