BALTIMORE (December 4, 2019) – Last month, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, along with several Civil Rights leaders, met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other company leaders to discuss concerns regarding Facebook’s policy on political ads. A letter was subsequently sent to Facebook to document the issues discussed at the meeting.
Upon receiving Facebook’s response, NAACP, the nation’s foremost advocacy and civil rights organization, issued the following statement:
Despite the damage our democracy has suffered since 2016, Facebook remains unwilling to take meaningful and necessary action to remove political propaganda from its platform. It is clear that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complicit and complacent in the spread of misinformation. Such misinformation has and will upend the integrity of our elections as we head into 2020. We will not stand for this. While we recognize the value that Facebook provides in connecting people with one another, as well as its prominent usage within the Black community, we call into serious question a platform that profits from the suppression of Black votes and Black voices.
Facebook must reverse its woefully malignant policy of not censoring false political advertising. NAACP will continue to advocate for legislation that will hold companies like Facebook accountable, and we remain committed to advancing the rights and protections of the Black community, both online and offline.
Recent Comments