We need Congress to pass antitrust reform and limit Facebook’s monopoly power.

An image of the Facebook logo being cracked by a gavel. The text reads, "Make the call to Congress & break up Facebook."

John, 

Facebook claims to be a platform for cultivating “meaningful engagement” and “powerful connections,” but the Facebook Papers that were leaked this week say otherwise. Thousands of pages from Facebook documents highlight how Facebook’s business model is to profit off its ability to spread and amplify misinformation and hate speech.1 Over a year ago, Donald Trump threatened police brutality protestors through a Facebook post, saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”2 Earlier this year, the Stop the Steal movement used Facebook to organize the January 6 insurrection.3 While Facebook has downplayed its role in this violence, these documents reveal that Mark Zuckerberg knew leaving up Trump’s post and account would rapidly increase the hate directed at Black communities and Facebook refused to implement countermeasures that would hinder harm.4,5

Inflammatory content leads to real-world violence, not just profits for Facebook, and this conflict of interest means Facebook cannot be trusted to self-regulate. During the protests over the police-killing of George Floyd, most of the hate and violent speech Facebook detected was localized in Minneapolis prior to Trump’s post. Trump’s post nationalized the targeting of protestors and inflamed hate speech that spread across the country.6 By keeping Trump’s post up on Facebook, there was a 300% increase in reports of hate speech and 500% increase in reports of violent speech.7 No company should have the power to cause large-scale harm based on one content-moderation decision.

In the leaked documents, Facebook acknowledges that Black users are its most valuable users, but does not cultivate a safe platform for us. Internal Facebook documents highlight that African Americans are one of the most active communities, with more meaningful engagement, on the platform.8 Black users have been serving as essentially free content moderators, reporting “racial slurs, violent threats, and harassment campaigns targeting Black users.”9 Despite doing this unpaid labor that would make the platform safer, Facebook not only ignores these reports but will censor Black users for talking about anti-Black racism.10 Facebook’s reckless decisions and failure to curb hate and violent speech from white nationalists makes its priorities clear: Facebook is a platform for cultivating white-nationalist communities. 

CALL YOUR CONGRESS MEMBER TO BREAK UP FACEBOOK

Who knows what other harms Facebook is hiding from the public to shield itself from accountability? This is yet another example in the list of Facebook’s wrongdoings that we have shared with you in the past month including the empowerment of troll farms targeting Black Americans.11 Despite Facebook’s artificial intelligence flagging Trump’s post with 90% certainty of violating its incitement policy, Facebook kept Trump’s post up due to its “cross-check” program, or XCheck.12 This program has exempted Trump and millions of other powerful people from some or all of Facebook’s rules forbidding harassment or incitement to violence.13 This negligence is concerning as Facebook is still considering letting Trump back on the platform before the 2024 election.14 

CALL YOUR CONGRESS MEMBER TO PASS ANTITRUST REFORM

With your support, Color Of Change has successfully pushed Facebook to kick Trump off its platform. This is the impact of our collective power. However, Facebook is not the only one. Other Big Tech companies, like Google, have platforms that let harmful and violent content go unchecked. We have another opportunity to not only dismantle Facebook’s monopoly, but other dangerous monopolies. That’s why we’re asking you to call Congress and demand they pass antitrust bills with stronger racial justice language, such as the American Choice and Innovation Online Act, and allocate $1 billion in funding to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) privacy bureau. 

A better future is on the horizon. Color Of Change has been fighting against the harm caused by monopolies for years. The more support we have from our members, the more collective power we have, and the likelier it will be that we can rein in monopoly power for good.

CALL CONGRESS

Until justice is real,

—Color Of Change HQ

References

  1. Mike Isaac, “Facebook Wrestles With the Features It Used to Define Social Networking,” The New York Times, October 25, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/329891?t=8&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  2. Sam Shead, “Facebook staff angry with Zuckerberg for leaving up Trump’s ‘looting. . . shooting’ post,” CNBC, June 1, 2020, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/329893?t=10&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  3. Craig Silverman, Ryan Mac, & Jane Lytyvenko, “Facebook Knows It Was Used to Help Incite the Capitol Insurrection,” Buzzfeed, April 22, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/303630?t=12&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm.
  4. Jessica Guynn, “Facebook says it’s winning the fight against hate speech targeting Black Americans. Its own research says otherwise,” USA Today, October 25, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/329895?t=14&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm.
  5. Donie O’Sullivan, Tara Subramaniam, and Clare Duffy, “Not stopping ‘Stop the Steal:’ Facebook Papers paint damning picture of company’s role in insurrection,” CNN, October 24, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/329896?t=16&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  6. Naomi Nix and Lauren Etter, “Facebook Privately Worried About Hate Speech Spawning Violence,” Bloomberg, October 25, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/329898?t=18&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  7. Ibid.
  8. Ibid.
  9. Ibid.
  10. Jessica Guynn, “Facebook while black: Users call it getting ‘Zucked,’ say talking about racism is censored as hate speech,” USA Today, July 9, 2020, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/135490?t=20&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  11. Karen Hao, “Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows,” MIT Technology Review, September 16, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/325338?t=22&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  12. Ibid.
  13. Jeff Horwitz, “Facebook says its rules apply to all. Company documents reveal a secret elite that’s exempt,” The Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/325334?t=24&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 
  14. Elizabeth Culliford, “Facebook suspends Trump until 2023, shifts rules for world leaders,” Reuters, June 5, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/329899?t=26&akid=52319%2E4731121%2EmzvGWm. 

Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Please help keep our movement strong.

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