Facebook is a toxic space for Black people
Help us ensure significant changes are made to protect the safety of marginalized groups.
Dear friend.
Facebook has been a hostile space for Black people for years - that needs to change. From silencing Black women when they speak out about the racism they’ve faced on the platform1, to viewing White men as a protected class, but not Black children2, all the way to their recently revealed hate speech policy that allows white nationalism and white separatism3, Facebook has shown itself to be a toxic environment that often silences the voices of Black communities.
But after two years of pressure from Color of Change members , Facebook is taking steps to fix the platform by allowing an independent civil rights audit. We’re working to ensure that your voices and your concerns about Facebook are heard and acted on. If you’ve even faced online harassment that Facebook refused to act on, flagged a hate speech that was never removed, or had Facebook censor your post about the racism you face, we want to hear about it. By sharing your stories with us and Facebook, we will have compelling evidence to push significant changes.
We all know the feeling of seeing a friend’s latest hilarious video pop up in our News Feed, or clicking through the latest photos of a family member’s new baby across the country or seeing our people in the streets demanding justice for yet another murder by police. For both the joyous and the tragic, Facebook is a venue for our people to connect, to organize and to share. Facebook is enmeshed in our culture so deeply that the failure to protect our safety on the platform is an egregious violation of the public trust. And the civil rights audit is the only way for Facebook to begin restoring that trust.
We know that civil rights audits like this work. When Airbnb lost the public’s trust in 2016 over a series of discriminatory housing issues, we pushed with them to conduct a civil rights audit and the results drove them to overhaul much of their platform to create a more fair, just and safe experience for Black users.4 By sharing our stories of Facebook’s failure to protect us with the civil rights auditor we can make sure they better understand how Facebook has failed to protect our communities and recommend key systemic changes that better protect us on Facebook.
If you’ve ever faced online harassment that Facebook refused to act on, flagged hate speech that was never removed, or had Facebook censor your post about the racism you face we want to hear about. We’ve created a form where you can submit details as well as screenshots to ensure your story is justly captured. Through our shared stories, we can make Facebook a safer online space for Black people.
Until justice is real,
Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Jade, Evan, Johnny, Future, Corina, Chad, Mary, Saréya, Eesha, and the rest of the Color Of Change team
References:
- "Another black activist, Ijeoma Oluo, is suspended by Facebook for posting about racism", Techcrunch, 2 August 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/30926?t=8&akid=14435%2E1942551%2ElSqNyd
- "Facebook's Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children", Pro Publica, 28 June 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/30929?t=10&akid=14435%2E1942551%2ElSqNyd
- "Leaked Documents Show Facebook's Post-Charlottesville Reckoning with American Nazis", Motherboard, 25 May 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/58303?t=12&akid=14435%2E1942551%2ElSqNyd
- "Here's What Airbnb Is Doing To Fix Its Discrimination Problem", The Huffington Post, 8 September 2016 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/30922?t=14&akid=14435%2E1942551%2ElSqNyd
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Help keep our movement strong.
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