Hub group calls on Twitter, Facebook to stop hate speech

A Hub-based civil rights group is blasting Facebook and Twitter for facilitating hate speech and bullying — particularly online attacks against minorities — and is calling on the social media giants to “take more aggressive steps” to root out abusive content.

Citing Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice sent out letters yesterday to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey to request a meeting aimed at coming up with ways to combat the kind of hate speech they say skyrocketed during the 2016 presidential election.

The letters, signed by the organization’s director of litigation, Oren M. Sellstrom, urged both companies to “seize this moment to take more aggressive steps to root out hate speech and threats” on their sites. Sellstrom said he hadn’t heard back from either company as of yesterday afternoon.

“It’s gotten out of control,” Sellstrom told the Herald. “It’s a toxic stew of racism, misogyny and xenophobia.” Sellstrom pointed out that while both Facebook and Twitter forbid offensive language, both companies are often reactive when it comes to policing their platforms and remove language after it has been flagged by their users. And by failing to enforce their own policies, Sellstrom said the companies are hurting their users — “particularly users of color.”

Neither Facebook nor Twitter returned requests for comment yesterday.

But First Amendment attorney Harvey Silverglate said ugly or offensive speech is protected under the Constitution and the companies will have a hard time making the kind of changes that the committee is calling for.

“These are the kind of people who love to promote diversity,” Silverglate said. “What they don’t like is diversity of opinion and points of view. What one man thinks is hate speech, another would say is love speech.”

Sellstrom countered that Facebook and Twitter are private corporations and not subject to First Amendment protection like governmental agencies.

FILE PHOTOS END IT: A Boston civil rights group is seeking a meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, left, and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.