John,

It can be hard to remember, but before Donald Trump embraced it, the term “Fake News” was used to describe downright false stories from actually fake websites. Stuff like “The Pope endorses Trump for President.”¹

Those shady websites are alive and well, and continue to spread total garbage across Facebook to the unsuspecting public. Maybe you saw this one?

A new study from Avaaz found that this bogus article received over 24.6 million views on Facebook.²

This wasn’t alone―the right-wing disinformation complex is systematically using lies on Facebook to bend American perceptions. If Facebook won’t step in to stop them, it’s up to Congress.

TELL CONGRESS: Investigate Facebook’s role in the right-wing disinformation machine!

The American people used to live by a shared set of facts. We may have disagreed on the policy prescriptions, but the facts we could at least agree on.

Now, in the social media age, disinformation campaigns are distorting the “facts” that we as a society accept as truths. We know, and our intelligence agencies have confirmed, that Donald Trump was elected thanks at least in part to a disinformation campaign run by Russian operatives. And since then, these same tactics have been used by the right-wing to increasingly divide the American people.

Now, media reports indicate that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has had at least two secret meetings with Donald Trump in the runup to the 2020 election―and the American people need to know what they’re discussing.

Join Social Security Works and our partners and sign the petition demanding Congress investigate Facebook’s role in the right-wing disinformation campaign.

The American people deserve to know the details of Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump’s secret meetings, and deserve a level playing field for political content in 2020.

Right now, despite Zuckerberg’s pledge to combat the spread of fake news ahead of the upcoming presidential election, Facebook is allowing ads on its network to contain outright lies, and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is spending $1 million per month to run those ads.

It’s relying on partisan so-called fact-checkers like the Daily Caller and Breitbart to flag misleading posts, even though they are some of the worst offenders!

We won’t have a fair Presidential election next year if Facebook is putting its thumb on the scale for Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. And we can’t afford a repeat of 2016.

Sign the petition and demand Congress investigate Facebook to help stop the spread of disinformation ahead of the 2020 election.

The future of our democracy is at stake.

Thank you,

Michael Phelan
Social Security Works

¹ https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/the-strangest-fake-news-empire

² https://avaazimages.avaaz.org/US_2020_report_1105_v04.pdf