Category Archives: Accountability and Representation

When the media does us wrong and community accountability

Want fair elections? Help us protest Facebook.

by Ted Lewis and Tracy Rosenberg. Originally printed in the SF Examiner

Facebook looms over our coming elections, and not in a good way. The giant media company has tremendous power and influence — and a bad track record.

In 2016, Facebook was successfully used as part of multi-faceted election interference campaign. Called to account by Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Russian ad buys and other efforts had little electoral impact in 2016, but the company later admitted that disinformation had reached 150 million Facebook and Instagram users in the United States.

The 2020 elections are already underway and protecting them now means more than deciding which candidates to support or pushing for ballot measures we believe in. This time, trust in our elections — the beating heart of our democracy – is at risk.

That is why protesting Facebook’s irresponsible policies is so urgent.

As a global media platform with billions of users, Facebook has the terrifying power to make or break the integrity of our elections. And in the near term are the only ones who can prevent the platform from being used to disrupt our elections — and elections around the world.

And while the Russian use of Facebook to interfere in the 2016 US elections is the most well-documented case of the company’s facilitation of efforts to sow discord, divisiveness, and disinformation, it is certainly not the only one.

In 2018, Facebook conceded its platform had been used to spread hate speech and disinformation that incited violence in Myanmar. The company commissioned a report about its role in human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, which stated that “Facebook has become a means for those seeking to spread hate and cause harm, and posts have been linked to offline violence.” Again in 2019, Facebook was used to amplify hate speech, harassment, and calls for violence in India against caste, religious, gender and queer minorities. The authors of a recent report by Equality Labs warn that without urgent intervention, hate speech on Facebook in India could trigger large-scale communal violence in that country.

Here in the US we must make sure Facebook does not again become a megaphone for disinformation and hate speech during the 2020 election.

But Facebook CEO Zuckerberg has made it clear that won’t be easy. Last October he announced the company would allow politicians and political parties to openly lie in their advertisements – meaning that Facebook now holds paid political advertisements to a lower standard than all others.

The time has surely come for Facebook’s monopoly to be broken up, but that is not going to happen before November 2020. So in the meantime it is up to us to pressure them directly. Corporations are susceptible to mass public pressure, and Facebook is no different. They don’t want their brand to be tarnished or to lose advertisers.

We have to start somewhere and conveniently, Facebook headquarters is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where there’s a long tradition of pressuring companies for change—whether to stop Gap and Nike from using sweatshop labor or convince Starbucks to buy coffee from Fair Trade farmers.

That’s why, on January 9, we’re kicking off a campaign that brings together human rights groups, media advocacy organizations, corporate campaigners and fed-up Facebook users to adopt the policies recommended by Facebook’s own employees in this public letter and to implement policies that discourage online hate, such as those recommended by Change the Terms.

Locally, we’ll be protesting outside of Facebook’s Menlo Park corporate headquarters under the banner, “Save Our Democracy: Protest Facebook.” Online, we’ll be “blacking out” Facebook on January 9 by replacing our Facebook cover and profile photos with a completely black box.

Some people say we should just abandon Facebook once and for all. But we’re not willing to cede a communications network that reaches billions of people to the unfettered practices of a corporation that cares more about its profits than about our democracy. Please join us in this fight.

Ted Lewis is the human rights director of Global Exchange. Tracy Rosenberg is the executive director of Media Alliance.

Legal Battle on Trump’s Public Charge Rule Not Over: Amici Curae in 9th Circuit Court

On January 27, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision allowed the “public charge” rule to temporarily go into effect by voiding a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge.

However, the underlying legal process continues. Media Alliance is one of several parties to an amici filing coordinated by the National Consumer Law Center NCLC charging that the public charge rule was enacted in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutes an improper use of the credit reporting system.

Here is the amici filing.

#CheckBigTech Instagram Live Series

The Facebook Users Union had big plans for the 2022 Facebook Shareholders Meeting, but it turns out the company decided to go all-virtual this year. But we can go virtual too. 

Join us all this week at @fbusersunited for a series of Instagram Live conversations on reclaiming the world’s largest social media platform to meet our needs and stop harming our communities. 

Monday May 23 – 7:30 EST/4:30 PST – “Facebook and The War on Communities“. Location: @fbusersunited on Instagram

Tuesday May 24 – 7:30 EST/4:30 PST – “Saving Democracy from Big Tech“. Location: @fbusersunited on Instagram

Wednesday May 25 – Hump Day. This is your day to take action. Make noise, in person or on-line. Use our toolkit for graphics, links and ideas for action.

If you take action online, use the hashtags #STOPFacebookHATE #MakeMarkListen and #CheckBigTech

Thursday May 26 – 7:30 EST/4:30 PST – “We Fight For All of Us: Addressing Gender-Based Violence“. Location: @fbusersunited on Instagram

Friday May 27 – 7:30 EST/4:30 PST – “Building User Power and a Digital Liberated Future“. Location: @fbusersunited on Instagram

Facebook has been put on notice. We’re delivering a people’s resolution: get hate and lies and violence off Facebook. NOW. 

They CAN do better. They’ve just never been forced to do so. We’re banding together users to demand a stop to the abuse.

FUU People Power Follow us on twitter | Click here to donate |Follow us on IG |  Facebookusers.org 

Facebook Users Union/FUU People Power is a project of Media Alliance and Global Exchange

#ProtestFacebook

On February 17, President’s Day, activists organized by Media Alliance and Global Exchange took to the streets in San Francisco and Palo Alto to tell the world’s biggest social network to stop sabotaging democracy for profit.

In San Francisco, FB founder Mark Zuckerberg’s pied a terre in Dolores Heights was surrounded with chalk and signs and besieged with kazoos and whistles, as locals told a bevy of observing press that AI formulas sold to political candidates to abet the spread of viral disinformation was an unacceptable business plan.

Images courtesy of Pro Bono Photos

And in Palo Alto, “TRUTH MATTERS” hung over the Oregon Expressway overpass on Highway 101.

Image courtesy of Pro Bono Photos

Neighbors in Dolores Heights and SF General (Chan-Zuckerberg) Hospital workers joined the San Francisco protest to highlight other disproportionate impacts from the Facebook founder on local communities.

For more on why SF’s safety net hospital should not bear the name of the Facebook founder, see this op-ed from Sasha Cutler from SEIU 1021.

Press Coverage: Newsweek, CNET, SF Gate, SF Examiner, KCBS Radio, SFIST, Xinhua, Mission Local, Breitbart

The President’s Day actions were the third in a series that began on January 9, 2020 with a protest outside Facebook headquarters and were followed by a Truth Matters human billboard the following week.

On February 28th, there will be an action at the headquarters of the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation.

On April 9, Earth Day, the campaign will speak up again with an emphasis on viral climate change denial.

For more on the campaign, visit the Protest Facebook website.

Facebook Users Union and Friends Chase Facebook out of Netroots Nation

The Facebook Users Union, a project of Media Alliance and Global Exchange, coordinated an attendee pushback at Meta’s booth at the progressive convention at Netroots Nation.

FUU campaign lead Brittany Williams was at Netroots to speak on a panel on social media accountability. Below she tells NewsOne why she was moved to take action against the company’s presence.

Continue reading Facebook Users Union and Friends Chase Facebook out of Netroots Nation

67 Social Justice Groups Demand Free Phone Calls From Prison

67 social justice groups, including Media Alliance, demanded that the FCC require the provision of free telephone calls from jails and prisons during the COVID-19 public health crisis. The groups pointed to the FCC’s Connect America pledge and asked why the prison telephone companies were not asked to help “keep America connected” during the crisis.

The letter states:

Incarcerated people are not able to socially distance while inside, and therefore are most vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. Moreover, in conditions where communications are limited, unjust practices may occur because incarcerated people are unable to communicate about dangerous crowding or lack of access to medical care. Adequate communications are a matter of civil rights and public health.

Continue reading 67 Social Justice Groups Demand Free Phone Calls From Prison

Check Big Tech: User and Worker Town Hall November 17th

FUU People Power is committed to building a user led movement to hold Big Tech companies like Facebook accountable. We are launching our Check Big Tech: User and Tech Workers Town Hall.

Will you join us on November 17th from 10:00am – 5:00pm?

As we approach the 2024 presidential election we can no longer allow lawmakers to accept donations to support the same Big Tech companies  that harm both users and workers around the world.

We are hosting this town hall to set the agenda for user and tech worker solidarity that can hold Big Tech and elected officials accountable.

To register as a individual please visit: https://hopin.com/events/user-and-tech-worker-town-hall

If your organization would like to become an official partner or sponsor of our User and Tech Worker Town hall, here is the link for more information. 

Facebook Users Union AKA FUU People Power is a project of Media Alliance and Global Exchange.