5 groups, including ADL, urge companies to pause Facebook ads to combat hate

A group of five US civil rights organizations are appealing to companies to stop using Facebook advertisements in July, to pressure the social media giant to remove hate content.

“ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and the NAACP, two of the nation’s most storied civil rights organizations, have joined with Sleeping Giants, Color of Change, Free Press and Common Sense in calling for some of the world’s largest corporations to pause advertising on Facebook during the month of July 2020,” the organization says in a statement.

ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says: “We have long seen how Facebook has allowed some of the worst elements of society into our homes and our lives. When this hate spreads online it causes tremendous harm and also becomes permissible offline. Our organizations have tried individually and collectively to push Facebook to make their platforms safer, but they have repeatedly failed to take meaningful action. We hope this campaign finally shows Facebook how much their users and their advertisers want them to make serious changes for the better.”

According to the statement, NAACP is accusing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of “complacency” in fighting disinformation.

 “Facebook remains unwilling to take significant steps to remove political propaganda from its platform,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “It is clear that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent in the spread of misinformation, despite the irreversible damage to our democracy. Such actions will upend the integrity of our elections as we head into 2020. We will not stand for this. While we recognize the value that Facebook provides in connecting people of color with one another, we call into question a platform that profits from the suppression of Black votes or Black voices.”