Facebook’s Wholesale Giveaway of Our Rights Following Censorship Threats from the White House Must Not Stand, Says Change the Terms
Today, the White House announced an unprecedented executive order that would sanction social media platforms for fact-checking and moderation against misinformation and hateful activity. This announcement comes just two days after Twitter put the first fact check label on President Trump’s tweet that mail-in ballots were fraudulent.
Said Jessica J. González, co-founder of Change the Terms and co-CEO of Free Press:
“What we are witnessing right now is not just unconstitutional censorship from the White House but a wholesale giveaway of our rights by the largest platform for expression in the world — Facebook. President Trump will continue his attacks on free speech and the courts will strike them down but in the meantime we expect social media companies to not bend on their responsibility to protect the lives of users and our democracy on their platforms.
“At even the first hint of this unlawful White House action, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg immediately caved to the President, arguing that it’s not his job to ensure the American people receive accurate information about voting. We shudder to think of how this cowardly position will apply to the unrestrained hate and misinformation on Facebook that threatens the lives of millions under Zuckerberg’s leadership. In stark contrast, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has stood up to President Trump’s scare tactics and the public will remember his efforts to ensure that facts still have an important place in our online spaces.
“As Zuckerberg takes to television today to abdicate his moral responsibility to prevent the politicization of Facebook in ways that will surely increase violent attacks on people of color, we must remember this moment and organize against a dangerous slide into an even more toxic online media ecosystem. We need stronger moderation from social media platforms to enforce their rules to curb the spread of lies and hate, not President Trump’s authoritarianism and not Mark Zuckerberg’s complete surrendering of Facebook’s rights and ours.”
Said Henry Fernandez, co-founder of Change the Terms and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund:
“Twitter has done the right thing. Horrific lies undermining the right to vote, promoting racism or attacks on people because of their religion — none of these should be given a megaphone by mainstream social media companies.
“Now that Trump is attacking the core of the First Amendment and spreading outright lies about the integrity of our democratic process months before the election, it is time for social media companies to stand up. Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction is to cower before Trump’s toothless threat and even more explicitly discard Facebook’s apparently meaningless commitments to not permit lies that discourage Americans from voting. If Facebook will not stand up when its platform is used to threaten democracy, then its words mean nothing.”
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Change the Terms is a coalition calling on Big Tech to institute and enforce service agreement prohibitions on hateful activities to protect public safety and respect diverse voices. The coalition includes more than 50 civil rights, human rights, technology policy and consumer protection organizations dedicated to encouraging social media sites, payment processors and chat services to commit to fair, effective and transparent rules and practices for content moderation.
