Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 84
Collins-Dexter added that the “disappearance of
community-owned media, tech, and communications
infrastructure ha[s] further compromised the ability to
engage in safe and secure Black organizing.”7
In recent years, racial-justice groups and activists have
pressured social-media companies like Facebook to
address algorithmic bias and remove hate speech, whitesupremacist content and disinformation campaigns, such
as voter-suppression efforts.8 In 2018, Free Press, the
Center for American Progress and the Southern Poverty
Law Center launched the Change the Terms campaign
to crack down on hate. The coalition includes Color Of
Change, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under
Law, MediaJustice, Muslim Advocates and the National
Hispanic Media Coalition.9
But companies like Facebook, one of the most powerful
companies in the world, have resisted removing such
content — even though the company knows its own
algorithms are recommending white-supremacist content
to users.10
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that in 2018,
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and senior executives
ignored an internal report from the company’s researchers
who found the site’s algorithms “exploit the human brain’s
attraction to divisiveness.” The report noted that if the
algorithms were “left unchecked,” there would continue to
be divisive content designed to draw users’ attention and
increase their “time on the platform.”11
The paper also reported that a 2016 internal Facebook
report found that “64% of all extremist group joins
are due to our recommendation tools” and that “our
recommendation systems grow the problem.”12
This helps explain why Facebook rarely removes
controversial and false posts by President Trump,
including those that violate its terms of service.
Facebook leaders decided to leave up a video that
Trump posted on his Facebook page in 2015 — during
the presidential race — where he called for a ban on
all Muslims entering the country.13 Meanwhile, a 2016
internal Facebook report found that dozens of Facebook
pages had spread misinformation about the election — but
the company had refused to remove most of these posts
out of the fear of angering Republican politicians.14
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And now in 2020, Trump is continuing to spread lies and
disinformation about mail-in voting, falsely stating that it
will result in a “RIGGED” election due to alleged voting
fraud.15
But when Trump used social media to incite violence
against demonstrators in Minneapolis during the George
Floyd uprisings last May, the pressure on Facebook and
Twitter to remove these posts intensified.16
Trump called the demonstrators “THUGS” and said he
told Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “that the Military is with
him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control
but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”17
Twitter responded to the president’s racist tweet by hiding
his post — a first — and explaining why it violated the
company’s policies against the glorification of violence.18
But Facebook refused to take action.
In fact, a Washington Post story revealed that Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Trump that his post put the
company in a tough position. Trump then posted a new
comment to explain that his previous threat to deploy the
military was a warning. This gave Facebook the political
cover it needed. Zuckerberg explained that Trump’s
post would remain up since it served as “a warning” and
asserted that “people need to know if the government is
planning to deploy force.”19
Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference for Civil
and Human Rights, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund and Rashad Robinson of
Color Of Change spoke with Zuckerberg about Trump’s
post. They were “disappointed and stunned by Mark’s
incomprehensible explanations”:
He did not demonstrate understanding of
historic or modern-day voter suppression
and he refuses to acknowledge how
Facebook is facilitating Trump’s call for
violence against protesters. Mark is setting
a very dangerous precedent for other voices
who would say similar harmful things on
Facebook.20
In late June, Facebook announced that it would now
remove posts — including ones from politicians — that
incite violence or attempt to suppress voting rights. It also
said that it would label posts, including political ads, that
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