| Friend,
During a speech to a group of Georgetown students and D.C. elites, Mark Zuckerberg once again made it clear that he doesn’t care about protecting vulnerable communities.
He told the world that there are people “who would prioritize getting the political outcomes they want over more people getting heard” and that “as long as we all commit to being open and making space for more perspectives, I think we're going to make progress.”
But whose perspectives is Zuckerberg listening to? He’s met with racist right-wing conspiracy peddlers like Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro and is appearing on Fox News — a network that spews pro-Trump propaganda, incites violence with white-supremacist hate speech and spreads false information.
Tell Zuckerberg: Don’t let Facebook be a tool of oppression. Adopt the Change the Terms coalition’s model policies to crack down on hate.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has failed to meet with leading civil- and digital-rights advocates — including Free Press — to hear concerns about how Facebook must do a better job of protecting the lives of people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ people and other marginalized communities.
Tell Facebook to adopt the Change the Terms coalition’s model policies and give a thumbs down to hate.
During Zuckerberg’s speech, he cloaked himself in First Amendment principles because he didn’t want to acknowledge the need to confront hate on his platform. His simplistic vision of free speech is far from the lived realities so many people experience.
Whose speech is promoted and protected depends on who’s writing the rules. And until Facebook adopts the Change the Terms coalition’s recommendations that Free Press and others developed, the company will continue to prioritize the speech of people who look like Zuckerberg — no matter how hateful and harmful that speech may be.
Tell Facebook: Do better. Hate speech undermines the free expression of women, people of color, immigrants and religious minorities. Don’t let Facebook be a tool of oppression.
Letting hate and misinformation run rampant silences marginalized communities. Enough is enough.
Thanks for all that you do—
Heather, Nilda, Jessica and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net
P.S. Ask Zuckerberg: When you talk about “freedom of speech,” whose speech are you invested in protecting? Tell Facebook to adopt the Change the Terms coalition’s model policies to crack down on hate. |
