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“The meeting we just left was a disappointment,” mentioned Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change. “[Facebook] showed up to the meeting expecting an ‘A’ for attendance.”
Free Press, a media activist group and one of many organizers of the #StopHateForRevenue marketing campaign to halt ad spending on the social community, mentioned Facebook nonetheless has not taken the boycott’s calls to motion critically.
“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,” mentioned Free Press Co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez. “Facebook approached our meeting today like it was nothing more than a PR exercise.”
In a press release, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone mentioned the corporate has established new insurance policies banning voting and census suppression and eliminated greater than 200 white supremacist organizations from the platform.
“This meeting was an opportunity for us to hear from the campaign organizers and reaffirm our commitment to combating hate on our platform. They want Facebook to be free of hate speech and so do we,” the assertion mentioned. “We know we will be judged by our actions not by our words and are grateful to these groups and many others for their continued engagement.”
The protest got here after Facebook determined to not take motion on a collection of controversial posts from President Donald Trump — together with one throughout racial justice protests that mentioned “looting” would result in “shooting.” Facebook and Zuckerberg got here below strain from staff and politicians, however the ad boycott represented a extra direct potential risk to the social community’s core enterprise.
The assembly on Tuesday lasted for somewhat over an hour, and was carried out through Zoom, mentioned Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. The assembly included Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, chief product officer Chris Cox, and members of the Facebook coverage staff, he mentioned.
The marketing campaign had referred to as on taking part manufacturers to ask for 10 modifications that contact on seemingly each facet of how Facebook operates, from the advertisements it permits to run on the platform to the make-up of its management staff and its content material moderation insurance policies.
The record contains demanding that Facebook rent a C-Suite government with “deep” civil rights expertise to evaluate merchandise and insurance policies for discrimination, bias and hate. The organizers are additionally calling for Facebook to pledge to do common, impartial audits of hate and misinformation; take away private and non-private teams targeted on hate or violent conspiracies and cease the advice and attain of such teams; and provides all moderators anti-bias and hate-related coaching within the subsequent 90 days.
The group additionally needs Facebook to ban political advertisements with blatant lies, which the corporate has confronted criticism for permitting prior to now. Facebook has beforehand defended the coverage, saying it doesn’t need to censor political speech.
Greenblatt mentioned the teams methodically outlined their calls for within the assembly, equivalent to the decision for a brand new civil rights government place at Facebook, however obtained no commitments or timeframes for change.
“We had 10 demands and literally, we went through the 10, and didn’t get commitments or timeframes or clear outcomes,” mentioned Greenblatt. Zuckerberg got here to the assembly expressing appreciation for the chance to listen to the nuances of the teams’ place, Greenblatt added. “And we said: ‘There is no nuance in white nationalism.'”
Many of the organizations expressed disappointment with what they mentioned had been repeated dialogues with few outcomes.
“For over 2 years, NAACP has entered into dialogue,” mentioned Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP. “We’ve watched the conversation blossom into nothingness.”
Gonzalez instructed CNN Business she is “really tired of the vague promises,” and that her group won’t be a part of future conferences with Facebook.
“I don’t know that I would sit down again until they’ve actually made some commitments,” she mentioned.
Robinson mentioned his earlier assembly with Facebook — alongside with the obvious futility of the conferences — was what helped to encourage the boycott marketing campaign.
“At the June 1st meeting, I kept saying, ‘What are we even doing — Mark, why are we meeting?’ It was at that point that I knew we would move into a boycott mode,” mentioned Robinson. “Facebook has our demands and recommendations, and so any other meetings need commitments.”
In a Facebook put up Tuesday morning, Sandberg mentioned the corporate would launch on Wednesday the ultimate report in a two-year-long civil rights audit of the corporate.
“It has helped us learn a lot about what we could do better, and we have put many recommendations from the auditors and the wider civil rights community into practice,” Sandberg wrote. “While we won’t be making every change they call for, we will put more of their proposals into practice soon.”
Civil rights teams expressed skepticism in regards to the report’s probability of resulting in modifications.
“It’s only as good as what Facebook ends up doing with the content,” mentioned Robinson of Color of Change. “It’s like going to a doctor, getting a new set of recommendations about your diet, and not doing anything about it and wondering why you’re not any healthier.”
Kaya Yurieff contributed to this report.
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