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A very long two years ago, Facebook agreed to a civil rights audit of the platform led by the civil rights law firm Relman Colfax, PLLC.
Right on time: The extremely critical review’s release this week just so happened to coincide with the Facebook advertising boycott and a meeting with social justice organizations such as the NAACP and Color of Change.
In particular, auditors disliked…
- The lack of civil rights experience among FB leadership
- FB’s history of allowing harmful rhetoric on the platform in the name of free speech
- The platform’s failure to address voter suppression tactics used on Facebook
My takeaway: Two years ago, in a pre-pandemic dreamland, users may have praised Facebook for cooperating with this audit to begin with. Instead, the audit’s results now make it feel like the universe is raining fireballs on the platform, whether or not the findings ultimately factor into the ongoing boycotts or Facebook's bottom line.
+1: Yesterday Facebook announced stricter rules on white supremacist language on the platform, as well as a promise to appoint an executive with civil rights experience.