Al Sharpton Says He Will Meet With Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
Al Sharpton Says He Will Meet With Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will meet with civil rights leaders including Al Sharpton next week in California amid concerns about the company’s policy of letting politicians lie on its platform.
“I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately,” the long-time civil rights activist said in a statement. He said he expects civil rights leaders including Marc Morial of the National Urban League, Derrick Johnson of the NAACP and Kristen Clarke from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law to join.
Facebook confirmed that Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg “will host a dinner with leaders in the civil rights community to hear their direct perspective and feedback.”
The announcement comes a day after Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, in a jab at Zuckerberg and Facebook, said he would end political advertising on his site over concerns it was amplifying misinformation and threatening democracy.
Facebook’s policy says it will not fact-check ads from politicians, which has allowed campaigns to pay the company to spread falsehoods. Some Facebook employees have said the policy runs counter to the fight against election misinformation that plagued the site in 2016.
Civil rights advocates have stepped up criticism of Facebook following revelations that Russia’s strategy to meddle in the 2016 election focused on a social-media plan to divide Americans and target African-Americans.
The groups are concerned that Facebook’s policies allow politicians to spread racially divisive content and that the platform doesn’t do enough to stop attempts to suppress minority votes.
In an Oct. 21 letter to Zuckerberg, groups including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights urged Facebook to consider making changes to address civil rights concerns.
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg met with civil rights groups and members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington in May.
Zuckerberg defended Facebook’s policy Wednesday following Twitter’s decision to ban political ads and doubled down on casting his platform as central to free democratic discourse. He’s asserted that a powerful platform should not act as a arbiter of political truth but rather promote useful debates about politicians’ statements.
President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has already taken advantage of the policy by running recent ads claiming Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, bribed Ukrainian officials -- claims that have been debunked. Trump’s campaign has also criticized Twitter’s decision, saying it’s bad for stockholders and “another attempt to silence conservatives.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Brody in Washington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.net;Naomi Nix in Washington at nnix1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette
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