Civil Rights Auditors Criticize Facebook Over Content Decisions
Facebook has made “painful decisions over the last nine months” resulting in “real world consequences” and “setbacks for civil rights,” independent auditors said Wednesday in a long-awaited civil rights audit. Former American Civil Liberties Union Director Laura Murphy and civil…
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rights law firm Relman Colfax noted the audit led to “significant” platform improvements. Voter suppression, hate speech and fact-checking were ongoing areas of concern the report highlighted. Auditors called CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s October speech at Georgetown University a setback, saying he voiced support for free expression “even where that has meant allowing harmful and divisive rhetoric that amplifies hate speech and threatens civil rights.” Vice President-Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg's September speech also was cited as a setback. He said Facebook “doesn’t subject politicians’ speech to fact-checking, based on the company’s position that it should not ‘prevent a politician’s speech from reaching its audience and being subject to public debate and scrutiny,’” auditors wrote. The report criticized Facebook for not moderating a post from President Donald Trump that Twitter censored (see 2006160059). The platform “has taken harmful steps backward on suppression issues, primarily in its decision to exempt politicians’ speech from fact checking, and its failure to remove viral posts,” the report said. Facebook is making progress but has a long way to go, said Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg: “Being a platform where everyone can make their voice heard is core to our mission, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable for people to spread hate.”