Facebook meets with civil rights groups amid boycott

Civil rights leaders organizing a major advertising boycott of Facebook said they remained unconvinced the social network is taking enough action against hate speech and disinformation after meeting with Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives Tuesday.

Civil rights leaders used the session to press Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, to institute changes at Facebook, including installing a top level executive who will ensure the global platform does not fuel racism and radicalization.

Color of Change President Rashad Robinson described the meeting as “disappointing” during a news conference later Tuesday. The organizers 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. “Attending alone is not enough,” said Robinson, who participated in the meeting, which lasted over an hour, through video.

“At this point, 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.

But Facebook would not commit that position to the C-suite as the organizers demanded, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, who participated in the meeting. They also would not say what the requirements of the position would be. “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.

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said, “This meeting was an opportunity for us to hear from the campaign organizers and reaffirm our commitment to combating hate on our platform. They want Facebook to be free of hate speech, and so do we.”

Zuckerberg also did not address the organizers’ call for the company to provide automatic recourse to companies whose advertisements appear alongside hateful content.