26 | JULY 16 • 2020 Fed up after years of dialogue, groups call for a halt to hate, incitement and misinformation now. DON COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jews in the D M ore than 1,000 busi- nesses, large and small, are pausing advertising on Facebook during July in response to a call from a coalition of civil rights orga- nizations headed by the Anti- Defamation League (ADL), the NAACP , Color of Change, Sleeping Giants, Common Sense and Free Press. The coalition asks Facebook to take immediate action to “find and remove public and private groups focused on white supremacy, militia, anti-Sem- itism, violent conspiracies, Holocaust denialism, vaccine misinformation and climate denialism. ” It proposes 10 actions in three areas — accountability, decency and support — for Facebook to take in July. Included is establishing and empowering a permanent civil rights infrastructure headed by an experienced C-suite execu- tive, as well as regular, indepen- dent audits of identity-based hate and misin- formation with publicly accessible findings. The ADL was a pioneer in expos- ing and challenging hate on the internet. In 1996, it issued its first report on the subject, “Web of Hate: Extremists Exploit the Internet, ” and began to educate communities and the public about the threat. This was 10 years before Mark Zuckerberg and four other Harvard University students launched Facebook globally. Today, Facebook is a vital commu- nication platform for many, with more than 2.5 billion monthly users worldwide. The company hosts more than 8 million advertisers who spent $70 billion in 2019, accounting for almost 99% of Facebook’ s income according to statista. com. While hate groups still inhab- it dark and isolated corners of the internet, they increasingly use mainstream outlets to recruit, organize and promote their agendas. But, it’ s not just the hate groups. The bigot next door, the uninformed, foreign governments, and political leaders and movements find it a powerful tool to spread misinformation and promote division. The coalition launched its cam- paign in mid-June with a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times charging Facebook with allowing incitement “against protesters fighting for racial justice, ” having “turned a blind eye to blatant voter suppres- sion” and having “amplified white nationalists by including news sources with known extremist ties. ” They also claimed Facebook is “actively choosing” not to protect and support Black users or call out Holocaust denial as hate, though it could easily do so. The ad ended: “Let’ s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism and violence. Please join us. ” DISAPPOINTING MEETING On July 7, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and leaders of three other coalition organizers met on Zoom with Facebook’ s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and members of their staff. It didn’ t go well, with the coalition afterward calling to extend the boycott beyond July. “It was abundantly clear in our meeting today that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team is not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their plat- form, ” the coalition’ s statement said. “Zuckerberg offered the same old defense of white supremacist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and other hateful groups … Instead of actually responding to the demands … Facebook wants us to accept the same old rhetoric, repackaged as a fresh response. ” At an online press confer- ence, Greenblatt called the meeting “long on time, but short on commitments. ” What would you do with $70 billion? We know what Facebook did. They allowed incitement to violence against protesters fi ghting for racial justice in America in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and so many others. They amplifi ed white nationalists by including news sources with known extremist ties in their “fact checking” program. They turned a blind eye to blatant voter suppression on their platform. Could they protect and support Black users? Could they call out Holocaust denial as hate? Could they help get out the vote? They absolutely could. But they are actively choosing not to do so. 99% of Facebook’ s $70 billion is made through advertising. Who will advertisers stand with? Today, we are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice and not advertise on Facebook’ s services in July. Let’ s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profi ts will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence. Please join us. #stophateforprofi t stophateforprofi t.org Jonathan Greenblatt ADL Mark Zuckerberg A.QUINTANO/WIKIMEDIA ADL and Civil Rights Partners Lead Facebook Boycott The ad that launched the boycott FACEBOOK STOPHATEFORPROFIT.ORG