Dear friend,
In the wake of the white supremacist insurrection in Washington, D.C, on January 6, we saw a sea change in how social media platforms were dealing with people spreading lies about the election, Donald Trump being chief among them.1After years of organizing by civil rights groups, who were warning about just such a real-world attack, social media platforms finally took action. Facebook suspended Trump's account, removing his access to a platform for spreading lies and inciting violence.2
The impact of these actions was immediate : Since Trump's removal from social media sites, disinformation about the election plummeted 73%.3 But now, the Facebook oversight board is taking up a review of the suspension, which may lead to Trump being allowed back on the platform to spread more lies, in clear violation of Facebook's own policies.4
You've spoken out in the past to demand Facebook take action against disinformation--can you take a moment today to share a comment with the Facebook oversight board demanding Facebook sustain Trump's ban from the platform?
Share your comment with the Facebook oversight board : Enforce Facebook's own policies and keep Donald Trump off the platform for good !
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Facebook created the oversight board to give the impression of oversight and accountability. But, by design, the board is accountable to Mark Zuckerberg, not the public. That means it's no substitute for government action and enforcement to hold Facebook accountable.
The truth is, Facebook shouldn't hide behind its new oversight board to avoid fixing its problems. It just needs to enforce and strengthen the policies it already has. It's already against Facebook's rules to share inaccurate voting information, spread election disinformation, or incite violence at the polls--all things that Trump and his allies repeatedly got away with during the election.
Simply removing Trump from the platform isn't going to fix the systemic racism and sexism built into the very algorithms of Facebook, but demanding that Facebook enforce its own policies around disinformation is an important step on the path to re-imagining social media platforms that allow people to connect with each other free from the threat of misogynistic and white supremacist hate and violence.
Thanks for speaking out !
Shaunna, Kathy, Sonja, Melody, Lindsay, KD, Iris, Maria, Kimberly, Elisa, KaeLyn, and Katie, the UltraViolet team.
Sources :
1. Are We Entering a New Era of Social Media Regulation?, Harvard Business Review, January 14, 2021
2. Facebook Bars Trump Through End of His Term, The New York Times, January 7, 2021
3. Misinformation dropped dramatically the week after Twitter banned Trump and some allies, The Washington Post, January 16, 2021
4. Case Number and Summary 2021-001-FB-FBR, Oversight Board, accessed February 4, 2021.
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