Civil rights groups unconvinced
US civil rights leaders organising a major advertising boycott of Facebook remain unconvinced that the social network is taking enough action against hate speech and disinformation, after meeting with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives yesterday.
Civil rights leaders used the session to press Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg to institute changes at Facebook, including installing a top-level executive who will ensure the global platform does not fuel racism and radicalisation.
Color of Change president Rashad Robinson described the meeting as "disappointing" during a news conference later.
The organisers of the campaign, known as #StopHateForProfit, provided a list of demands to the social network days before the meeting, he said, and the company did not have clear responses to their recommendations.
‘‘We were expecting some very clear answers to the recommendations we put on the table. And we did not get them.’’
Instead, the leaders said, they were met with partial responses to one demand: hiring an executive with civil rights expertise.
‘‘It was abundantly clear in our meeting today that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team is not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform,’’ Greenblatt said.
Zuckerberg also did not address the organisers’ call for the company to provide automatic recourse to companies whose advertisements appeared alongside hateful content, the organisers said.
More than 750 companies, including Coca-Cola, Hershey and Unilever, have suspended their advertising on the platform.