Facebook decisions slammed in audit

Company’s policies and practices been under review

SAN FRANCISCO— Facebook has not done enough to fight discrimination on its platform and has made some decisions that were “significant setbacks for civil rights,” according to a new independent audit of the company’s policies and practices.

In a 100-page prepublication report, which was obtained by The New York Times, the social network was repeatedly faulted for not having the infrastructure for handling civil rights and for prioritizing free expression on its platform over nondiscrimination.

In some decisions, Facebook did not seek civil rights expertise, the auditors said, potentially setting a “terrible” precedent that could affect the November general election and other speech issues.

“Many in the civil rights community have become disheartened, frustrated and angry after years of engagement where they implored the company to do more to advance equality and fight discrimination, while also safeguarding free expression,” wrote the auditors, Laura W. Murphy and Megan Cacace, who are civil-rights experts and lawyers.

They said they had “vigorously advocated for more and would have liked to see the company go further to address civil rights concerns in a host of areas.”

On Tuesday, civil rights leaders met with Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, with 10 demands, including appointing a civil-rights executive.

But those who attended said the Facebook executives did not agree to many

of their requests and instead spouted “spin.”

Facebook’s executives had previously pointed to the civilrights audit as a sign that the company was seriously grappling with what was on its site.

In a statement on Wednesday about the audit, Sandberg said the report was “the beginning of the journey, not the end.”

She added: “What has become increasingly clear is that we have a long way to go. As hard as it has been to have our shortcomings exposed by experts, it has undoubtedly been a really important process for our company.”

In the report, the auditors credited Facebook for making progress on some issues, including increasing hiring of inhouse civil-rights experts over the past two years.