A national civil rights group has recently condemned social media giant Facebook for its lack of action against hate groups and organized far-right rally events promoted on its platform. The group claims it previously warned Facebook executives about such event pages at least ten times dating back to 2015. The organization claims its requests for preventative measures began hopeful, but now remain understandably cautious, as Facebook has done little to prevent events advocating violence.
The national civil rights group speaking out against Facebook is known as Muslim Advocates. It is a member of a coalition called 'Change the ,' consisting of more than 50 civil rights organizations working together to press Facebook toward adopting stronger policies against the promotion of racist threats and other forms of hate on its platform. Change the has met with Facebook executives at town halls in the past and has expressed its concerns over white supremacist groups on the platform, but claim the social media company's COO made no promises.
As reported by CEO Mark Zuckerberg of these events during a dinner at his own home last November. A spokesperson for Facebook claims it is reviewing the timeline published by Muslim Advocates, but after five years little has been effective against these call to arms event pages.
Facebook Once Again Shows It Can't Control Its Own Guests
Unfortunately for Facebook, this story is nothing new. While often credited as spearheading the social media revolution as an early online darling, the platform has since fallen from grace and reputation, although it remains a tech powerhouse with an astronomical number of daily visits to its site. After allowing misinformation and foreign manipulation to riddle its platform during the 2016 Presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have vowed to change the narrative. However, just last month its s failed to remove a militia event page that encouraged others to bring weapons to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The page had been flagged over 455 times, yet wasn't removed. Zuckerberg called it an 'operational mistake,' but how many times must this continue before real discipline occurs?
Civil rights organizations like Muslim Advocates and dozens of others within Change the have a right t0 feel discouraged. They have presented Facebook not only with evidence of organized hate rallies against people of various ethnicities and religions, but of continual and increasing examples over the course of five years. Facebook has responded with plenty of promises, policy changes and s to flag these sorts of event pages and groups. However, after five years and little results, it may be time to try a different approach. The civil rights groups have implored Facebook to act now by banning white nationalists and other hate groups from using the event pages, especially those that include a call to arms. Civil rights groups still hold out Facebook will finally listen before more lives are lost.
Source: Gizmodo