An independent audit commissioned by Facebook harshly criticizes the company, arguing that some of its decisions were “significant setbacks for civil rights”

An independent audit faulted the social network for “vexing and heartbreaking decisions” that affect its users — and potentially the November elections.

New York Times 2020-07-08 Mike Isaac

Discussion

@emilybell Emily Bell on x
Facebook's Civil Rights audit is out and lays out the ‘seesaw of progress and setbacks’ at the company over the past two years. Bottom line - Facebook remains too ‘piecemeal and reactive’ in regard of civil rights - report here 👉 https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@timothydurigan Timothy Durigan on x
“While @Facebook has built a robust mechanism to actively root out foreign actors...@Facebook has made policy and enforcement choices that leave our election exposed to interference by the President and others who seek to use misinformation to sow confusion and suppress voting.” …
@notaaroncraig Craig Aaron on x
“Facebook has ... an appeasement strategy: Tell us what we need to hear, and Facebook can keep doing whatever they like. What they really need is a comprehensive sweep of the site of white supremacists, homophobes, anti-Semites ...” — ⁦@JGo4Justice⁩ https://www.nytimes.com/...
@aguilararturo Arturo Aguilar Figueroa on x
“In a 100-page prepublication report, the social network was repeatedly faulted for not having the infrastructure for handling civil rights and for prioritizing free expression on its platform over nondiscrimination.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@joejerome Joseph Jerome on x
Interesting tidbit from Facebook's Civil Rights Audit: “Facebook states that it has learned behavioral patterns in organized hate and terrorist content that make them distinctive from one another, which may aid in their detection.” https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@apbusiness @apbusiness on x
An audit of Facebook's civil rights record outlines a “seesaw of progress and setbacks” on everything from bias in the platform's algorithms to its content moderation, advertising practices and treatment of voter suppression. https://apne.ws/Cb8fuff
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
NEW: Auditors sharply critique Facebook's history of decisions around decisions of speech on the platform, which they found were ‘Setbacks for Civil Rights’ from a two-year study detailed in a 100-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/...
@puiwingtam Pui-Wing Tam on x
Yipes, Facebook. “Many in the civil rights community have become disheartened, frustrated and angry after years of engagement where they implored the company to do more to advance equality and fight discrimination.” via @GregBensinger https://www.nytimes.com/...
@wiczipedia Nina Jankowicz on x
“When...powerful politicians do not have to abide by the same rules that everyone else does, a hierarchy of speech is created that privileges certain voices over less powerful voices.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jolingkent Jo Ling Kent on x
NEW: Facebook released its latest external civil rights audit which criticizes their decision not to fact check politicians, criticizes decision to leave up recent posts by Pres @realDonaldTrump, says more must be done to stop hate and voter suppression: https://about.fb.com/... …
@larakiara Lara O'Reilly on x
Sheryl Sandberg's post in response to Facebook's 2-year civil rights audit. Key line: “While we won't make every change they call for...” https://about.fb.com/...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Well this is interesting. This is the audit report that Facebook referred to yesterday. @nytimes has seen leaked draft copy. Facebook has comprehensively flunked it https://www.nytimes.com/...
Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
Civil rights leaders are still fed up with Facebook over hate speech
@rashadrobinson Rashad Robinson on x
Met with Mark Zuckerberg and @Facebook leadership today. It was a disappointment. They have had our demands for years and yet it is abundantly clear that they are not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform.
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
Sheryl Sandberg claims in Facebook post this morning, “We are making changes - not for financial reasons or advertiser pressure, but because it is the right thing to do.” https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
In a meeting today with civil rights groups who organized the widespread ad boycott, Facebook failed to appease organizers, saying it doesn't respond to demands under financial pressure. w/ @tiffkhsu https://www.nytimes.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
“I'm deeply disappointed that Facebook still refuses to hold itself accountable to its users, its advertisers and society at large” https://www.freepress.net/... https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
Seven hours later... https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@swodinsky Shoshana Wodinsky on x
ive been trying to pinpoint why the news cycle feels so gutting rn, and tbh it just might be the endless drumbeat of powerful institutions telling us again and again that we don't deserve to ask for anything better than our deeply shitty status quo https://gizmodo.com/...
@nellwyn Nell Thomas on x
🧵Over @TheDemocrats, we've been working to bring transparency and accountability to social media platforms. This includes documenting policy violations. As this article hints, @Facebook sends us some ridiculous answers to our questions and inquiries. https://www.washingtonpost.co…
@alexhern Alex Hern on x
it is impressive to commit to ignoring part of your two-year-long civil rights audit before you've even published it https://www.alpha.facebook.com/ ...
@yaeleisenstat Yael Eisenstat on x
@donie Interesting. When my FB team proposed a plan to combat voter suppression in ads in 2018 (amid the civil rights audit), there was no interest from my managers to “do the right thing”. Wrote all about it 2 weeks ago. How many more times will we hear “we know we have to do be…
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Well said, @rashadrobinson though vitriolic hate is only one aspect of Facebook's harms. Ask @mariaressa - facing jail in Philippines- for others. Or the Rohingya. Or us in Britain with our poor squalid corrupt subverted referendum https://twitter.com/...
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
Special evening episode of @AxiosReCap, focused on the Facebook ad boycott. We talk to the four boycott organizers, who met today with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. What happened and what comes next? https://podcasts.apple.com/... https://www.axios.com/...
@teroterotero Tero Kuittinen on x
@swodinsky Zuck's profound contempt for his critics stems from the fact that he has gotten away with so much by just stonewallling and mouthing platitudes. He founded the company on breaking the rules of his university and life taught him that there are never any consequences.
@mikahmiriam Mikah O'Mara on x
@donie She's the Ivanka of Facebook
@mayawiley Maya Wiley on x
#Facebook is not going to grow a conscience. https://twitter.com/...
@jamesclayton5 James Clayton on x
BREAKING: The New York Times reporting that Facebook's civil rights audit - two years in the making - is highly critical. Facebook may be “driving people towards self-reinforcing echo chambers of extremism” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@ericgeller Eric Geller on x
So Facebook is making changes because it's the right thing to do and not because of “financial reasons or advertiser pressure,” but it's only discovering the right thing to do after advertiser pressure that risked financial losses. Got it. https://www.facebook.com/... https://twi…
@adamslily Lily Adams on x
They aren't making changes because of an audit. Any changes theyre making are because a smart boycott was organized by groups like @ColorOfChange. Full stop. https://twitter.com/...
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
Sandberg is trying to conflate their civil rights audit with the meeting today with members of our #StopHateForProfit campaign, trying to sow confusion. Two different subjects. We have been here before and they haven't made “changes.” They're just kicking the can down the road. h…
@jeffstone500 Jeff Stone on x
Facebook is trying to get ahead of an independent civil rights audit, scheduled for release after two years of work amid an ad boycott. 👀 “We are making changes - not for financial reasons or advertiser pressure, but because it is the right thing to do.” https://www.facebook.com/…
@elinor_carmi @elinor_carmi on x
Sheryl Sandberg “We are making changes - not for financial reasons or advertiser pressure, but because it is the right thing to do” https://www.alpha.facebook.com/ ... I've analyzed the Six4Three lawsuit docs. From 7000 pages I can say: EVERY single change Facebook does is cuz of…
@mayazi @mayazi on x
No other company has gotten as many chances to get it right as FB has. And everytime they keep trying to spin it instead of fixing it. Every single time. Guess that's how to lean in https://twitter.com/...
@cliffordlevy Cliff Levy on x
Zuckerberg & Sandberg met with civil rights leaders. Harsh response: • FB reverted to “spin.” • “Same old talking points.” • “They showed up to the meeting expecting an A for attendance. Attending alone is not enough.” https://www.nytimes.com/... By @MikeIsaac @tiffkhsu
@rachellarris Rachel Joy Larris on x
I've been skeptical since FB announced they would meet publicly. That tends to mean they wanted the attention for going but no interest in listening. https://twitter.com/...
@cruickshank @cruickshank on x
Least surprising news ever. FB and Zuckerberg do not believe they are accountable to anyone or need to change a thing. https://twitter.com/...
@schmidtlepp Christopher Lauer on x
It does to demands of dictatorships, though. https://twitter.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
Color of Change's @rashadrobinson starts with reminding us of Facebook's hiring of Definers PR firm. https://twitter.com/...
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
fwiw I think it would have been much newsier if any of these groups had left the meeting with something *positive* to say about FB. I think it was clear from the past few weeks there was little FB would/could do to appease the ad boycotters
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
the first statements are out from civil rights groups following their meeting with FB this morning. They are not flattering: “Facebook approached our meeting today like it was nothing more than a PR exercise.” - Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
Groups behind Facebook ad boycott about to hold a press conference on Zoom now on how [badly] their meeting with Facebook went.
@freepress Free Press on x
@NAACP @ColorOfChange @ADL @Facebook @JGo4Justice .@JGo4Justice: “This isn't over. We will continue to expand the boycott until @Facebook takes our demands seriously.” #StopHateForProfit is only growing. We have to keep up the pressure. https://www.freepress.net/... 3/3
@afp @afp on x
#BREAKING Ad boycott organizers say Facebook pledge on hateful content insufficient https://twitter.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
🚨Looks like meeting with organizers of Facebook ad boycott didn't go so well: “#StopHateForProfit didn't hear anything today to convince us that Zuckerberg and his colleagues are taking action.” https://twitter.com/...
@freepress Free Press on x
Today we @NAACP @ColorOfChange and @ADL met with execs from @Facebook, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg. How did the meeting go? From our Co-CEO @JGo4Justice: “#StopHateForProfit didn't hear anything today to convince us that Zuckerberg and his colleagues are taking action.” 1/
@oversightboard Oversight Board on x
We understand many people are eager for the Board to officially begin our task of providing independent oversight of Facebook's content decisions. We share this urgency, but the Board won't be operational until late Fall.
@dicktofel Richard Tofel on x
“Late Fall” presumably means the second half of Fall. The first half of Fall ends on November 5, two days after the election. Could be a coincidence. https://twitter.com/...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
This is a body appointed by Facebook to take on a role defined by Facebook on Facebook's terms. It has just tweeted that it will not make its first rulings till ‘late fall’ ie after the presidential election. Does anybody spot a problem here? https://twitter.com/...
@oversightboard Oversight Board on x
We don't expect the Board to regularly share opinions outside of our decisions on content and policy recommendations to Facebook. Our focus is on building a strong institution that will deliver concrete results over the long-term.
@scepticgeek Mahendra Palsule on x
Perhaps rename it as Facebook's Hindsight Board https://twitter.com/...
@lauraolin Laura Olin on x
Move Slowly And Still Break Things https://techcrunch.com/...
@jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
The Oversight Board could be helpful now. While media play moral panic and pols look for weakness to exploit and FB avoids decisions, the Board could examine the issues at hand, thoughtfully and from various perspectives. It needs no infrastructure for that.
@bgrueskin Bill Grueskin on x
@OversightBoard No big rush! Not much is happening between now and late November that might involve Facebook! Have a nice summer!
@jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
The Oversight Board has undercut its authority before it even begins. I say that as someone who has been hoping it would succeed. If the Board is truly independent, then nothing is stopping the Board from meeting & discussing issues now. Disappointing. https://twitter.com/...

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An independent audit commissioned by Facebook harshly criticizes the company, arguing that some of its decisions were “significant setbacks for civil rights”

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