Facebook ad boycott groups 'disappointed' after Zuckerberg meeting | #TheCube

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on the second day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on the second day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020 Copyright Jens Meyer/Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By Seana Davis
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Facebook has been under significant pressure after hundreds of companies suspended their adverts on the platform.

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A meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday has been labelled as 'disappointing' and 'spin' by leaders of rights groups.

The meeting failed to quell tensions between civil rights groups and the tech giant, following hundreds of companies dropping advertisements on the platform.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Color of Change, and Free Press were among the groups at the meeting who have been leading a campaign to call on Facebook to do more to curb hate speech and disinformation on the platform.

The groups launched the #StopHateForProfit campaign in June, which is urging companies to suspend Facebook advertisements. Since then, over 900 companies have suspended their adverts, including Verizon, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola.

Prior to the meeting on Tuesday, CCO Sheryl Sandburg penned a post on Facebook, saying that the company had been "making changes" adding that this was not due to "financial reasons or advertiser pressure," but rather "because it is the right thing to do".

However, following the meeting, co-CEO of Free Press, Jessica J. Gonzales, released a statement, saying that the groups "won’t be distracted by Facebook’s spin today or any day," adding that the campaign "didn’t hear anything today to convince us that Zuckerberg and his colleagues are taking action".

"Instead of committing to a timeline to root out hate and disinformation on Facebook, the company’s leaders delivered the same old talking points to try to placate us without meeting our demands," she added.

CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, took to Twitter, saying that "no changes had been made" and that the company had failed to respond to our "specific requests".

The civil rights groups have listed 10 steps they want the company to take which includes establishing a permanent 'civil rights infrastructure' and submitting to a regular third-party, independent audit with regards to hateful content and misinformation on the platform.

"This meeting was an opportunity for us to hear from the campaign organizers and reaffirm our commitment to combating hate on our platform," a Facebook spokesperson told Euronews in a statement.

"We have invested billions in people and technology to keep hate off of our platform. We have created new policies to prohibit voter and census interference and have launched the largest voting information campaign in American history," they said.

Facebook's rival, Twitter, has been taking a tougher stance on content moderation over the past few weeks and has labelled a number of tweets published by the US President Donald Trump that violate their guidelines.

Facebook, however, has chosen a far more moderate approach, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg issuing a statement in late May detailing why the company has chosen not to take any action in relation to equivalent posts on the platform.

"I know many people are upset that we've left the President's posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause an imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies", he said.

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