Last year was rough for Facebook. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) addressed Facebook’s policies regarding advertising fake news and posting false political campaign ads.
Additionally, in October 2019, Sen. Mark Warner, a top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to Zuckerberg, pointing out that the social media platforms’ policies risk sabotaging standard norms of “transparency, public deliberation and debate, openness, diversity of opinion, and accountability.”
In the letter, Warner wrote,
“By contrast, social media platforms tout their ability to target portions of the electorate with direct, ephemeral advertisements-often on the basis of private information the platform has on individual users, facilitating political advertisements that are contradictory, racially or socially inflammatory, or materially false, without the same constraints as more traditional communications mediums, and without affording opposing candidates an equal opportunity to respond directly in front of the same targeted audience.”
Zuckerberg however has a different point of view.
“Well, this is clearly a very complex issue, and a lot of people have a lot of different opinions,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just think that in a democracy, people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.”
He continued,
“I think that people should be able to judge for themselves the character of politicians.”
In 2018, the NAACP decided to call for a national boycott of Facebook, with the hashtag LogOutFacebook protest online as an answer to the social media’s history of privacy concerns, as well as the expanse of misinformation and the use of Facebook as digital advertising, promoting dishonest portrayals of African-Americans.
Facebook’s response to the outrage was in a statement, saying it was “grateful” for the NAACPs’ and other civil rights groups’ feedback. Facebook also said they added more control for privacy, by adding a privacy governance- and security team.
“We’re listening and we agree that we have areas that we can improve,” a Facebook spokeswoman said. “We have acknowledged and apologized for the security incidents and privacy missteps we’ve had in the past, and we continue to invest in solutions to keep our platform safe and improve.”
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote on a blog post in 2018 that Facebook is “committed to working with leading U.S. civil rights organizations to strengthen and advance civil rights on our service.”
The NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson, mentioned in a statement, “Facebook’s engagement with partisan firms, its targeting of political opponents, the spread of misinformation and the utilization of Facebook for propaganda promoting disingenuous portrayals of the African-American community is reprehensible.”
The statement also declared the fact that the civil rights non-profit organization returned donations made by Facebook back to their original sources. The amount is not mentioned.
According to CNN, Facebook allegedly claimed that, “As a private company, it shouldn’t have the power to censor the leader of the free world, even if he lies. Those lies, Facebook says, will be tested and exposed by the media and through political discourse.”
But it’s not all negative.
Since 2016, Facebook did pull the trigger on stricter measurements such as removing and prohibiting White Nationalists to post, as well as fact-checking published misinformation on anti-vaccination. However, political posts – such as ad campaigns – are immune and so to speak “protected.”
When the NAACP joined the National Action Network (NAN) and the National Urban League (NUL) in pointing out ongoing concerns of Facebook regarding its lack of privacy, Johnson, supported by the president and founder Rev. Al Sharpton of NAN, and the president and CEO of NUL Marc Morial, sent a signed letter via email to Zuckerberg on Oct. 18, 2019 stating:
“Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, National Action Network (NAN), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Urban League (NUL) would like to meet with you in person as soon as possible to discuss our concerns as Civil Rights leaders regarding issues of election security and voter suppression tactics.
“Bad actors have identified the Black community as strategic targets on Facebook’s platform to propagate racial division and have implemented unregulated influence campaigns that weaponize a deeply painful racial experience in this country to marginalize our community, our voices, and our votes. Our concerns are urgent. Please provide dates of your immediate availability in your response.”
And in a statement released on Nov. 5, 2019 by the NAACP, Johnson stated,
“We are encouraged by the recent meeting held with Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, but we recognize there is still much work to be done.”
Facebook responded by saying it appreciated the feedback and all major points urged by the NAACP. However, the company decided not to take actions on the requests made by the NAACP.
Since the NAACP wasn’t able to find a common ground with Zuckerberg, they released the following statement on Dec. 4, 2019 stating:
“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 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. The 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.”
