Today @rashadrobinson @DerrickNAACP @JGreenblattADL and I will meet with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg & other Facebook execs about the #StopHateForProfit campaign. Our demands are already on the table, they've been on the table, many long before this campaign ever came to be.
You can find them here: stophateforprofit.org/productrecomme…. And this thread has details.
We're asking Facebook to: (1) Establish and empower permanent civil rights infrastructure including C-suite level executive with civil rights expertise to evaluate products and policies for discrimination, bias, and hate.
(2) Submit to regular, third party, independent audits of identity-based hate and misinformation with summary results published on a publicly accessible website.
(3) Provide audit of and refund to advertisers whose ads were shown next to content that was later removed for violations of terms of service.
(4) Find and remove public and private groups focused on white supremacy, militia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, violent conspiracies, Holocaust denialism, vaccine misinformation, and climate denialism.
(5) Adopt common-sense changes to policies to help stem radicalization and hate on the platform. This is where the @changeterms' coalition's many years of study and leadership on this issue, and its model corporate policies to disrupt online hate are critical. #ChangeTheTerms
The @changeterms policies call for seven main shifts. They urge #BigTech to ban "hateful activities." We discussed with dozens of groups for almost a year on how to define this.
Activities that incite violence, intimidation, harassment, threats, or defamation targeting an individual or group based on actual or perceived race, color, religion,
national origin, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
national origin, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
.@changeterms also has ideas about how to build accountability into content moderation. A few other thoughts, and then I'll head back to the #StopHateForProfit asks.
Enforcement. Significantly invest in human content moderation (I'd include paying moderators well and covering robust mental health and time off for the people that have to see this trash) so that you can properly and consistently enforce your policies.
Right of Appeal. Provide a robust and easy to use right of appeal process to ensure that those protesting hate are not swept up in automated takedowns.
Transparency. Provide robust transparency about content moderation through regular reports (@changeterms is asking for a lot more detail than we see in existing reports - specifics here: changetheterms.org/terms).
Evaluation and Training. Train moderators in the cultural context of the regions they're moderating, ensuring an analysis of the historical and current state of power and oppression in the region. Regularly evaluate the efficacy of automated content moderation.
Governance and Authority. Build infrastructure to hold the Board and the C-suite accountable for content moderation.
State Actors, Bots, and Troll Campaigns. Ban state actors, bots and trolls that participate in hateful activities.
So yeah, #StopHateForProfit's fifth ask is detailed, and Facebook has heard these requests for years now and done little to nothing to meet them. I can't emphasize enough the incredible work of hundreds of activists and organizations that have been fighting online hate for years.
(6) Stop recommending or otherwise amplifying groups or content from groups associated with hate, misinformation or conspiracies to users.
(7) Create an internal mechanism to automatically flag hateful content in private groups for human review.
(8) Ensure accuracy in political and voting matters by eliminating the politician exemption; removing misinformation related to voting; and prohibiting calls to violence by politicians in any format.
(9) Create expert teams to review submissions of identity-based hate and harassment. 42% of daily users of Facebook have experienced harassment on the platform, and much of this harassment is based on the individual’s identity. This is totally unacceptable!
(10) Enable individuals facing severe hate and harassment to connect with a live Facebook employee. In no other sector does a company not have a way for victims of their product to seek help.
I can't emphasize enough that this is a starting point, the bare minimum that Facebook could do to protect users, advertisers and society at large. Anything short of this is completely unacceptable.
