Category Archives: Accountability and Representation

When the media does us wrong and community accountability

Accountability and Representation, Internet Freedom

Media Alliance comments on Section 230

Media Alliance filed these joint comments with Global Exchange on behalf of the Protest Facebook section in the FCC’s proceeding on Section 230 of the Telecom Act.

Section 230 exempts online platforms from liability for their content. It is one of the pillars of the Internet that has allowed alternative content to thrive on the Internet. And in an era of disinformation, we are seeing the dark side of freedom from liability.

Media Alliance categorically rejects that Section 230 should be abolished or ended. Just as categorically, we believe that tempered regulation of online platforms to address the viral spread of disinformation and online hatred is called for.

Here are the comments we submitted to the FCC.

Media Alliance and Global Exchange Comments on Section 230Download
Continue reading Media Alliance comments on Section 230 →
Accountability and Representation

Protest Facebook: Protecting the 2020 Elections in the age of facebook.

The Protest Facebook coalition presented a special webcast on October 6, 2020 about protecting election integrity, voting rights, and democracy in the age of Facebook. It features:

Ángel Díaz is counsel in the Liberty & National Security Program of the Brennan Center for Justice.

Yaël Eisenstat is the former Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations for political advertising at Facebook.

Myaisha Hayes is the campaigns director at MediaJustice, where she oversees the launch of campaigns such as #NoDigitalPrisons and #ProtectBlackDissent.

Jesse Littlewood is the vice president of campaigns at Common Cause, which is training election protection social media monitors to combat cyber-suppression in their communities.

Sponsored by Global Exchange, Media Alliance, the Protest Facebook Coalition and others.

Accountability and Representation, Press Room

Protest Facebook – Protect The Results November 4

The Protest Facebook coalition organized a Protect the Results demonstration in front of Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters on the afternoon of November 4th.

ABC press coverage: Protesters Demand Twitter and Facebook Take More Action Against Election Disinformation

KTVU press coverage: San Francisco Bay Area Protestors Push Back on Trump’s Election Interference

Accountability and Representation, Press Room

The Robber Barons of Big Tech

by Veronica Irwin. Published in SF Weekly.

Remember when we thought we were going to make the world a better place?

In the city where Jello Biafra once ran for mayor on a platform that would have required businessmen to wear clown suits, recently graduated engineers arrived wearing jeans and pocket-tees. Like the countercultural icons who came before them, they thumbed their collective noses at the stuffy protocols that had come to dominate the white collar workforce. While New York’s business elite had members-only clubs, local tech CEOs kept a kegerator in the office — right next to the ping-pong table and bean bag chair lounge. The Silicon Valley “campus,” complete with outdoor shopping centers and arcades, replaced the corporate headquarters, and open floor plans dismantled the sterile grid of cubicles.

This was the Left Coast. On this side of the country, the son of a teen mom and a cuban immigrant could rise to become the world’s first trillionaire and a couple of bearded, shaggy college dropouts could build a world-conquering personal computer company while pledging to Think Different.

Continue reading The Robber Barons of Big Tech →
Accountability and Representation, Press Room

Supervisors Approve Resolution To Condemn Naming Of Hospital After Mark Zuckerberg

originally published on SFGate.com

San Francisco supervisors voted 10-1 in approval of a resolution condemning the naming of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The resolution, authored by Supervisor Gordon Mar, urges the city to establish clear standards for naming rights for public institutions and properties, reserving those rights only for organizations that align with the city’s values.

Continue reading Supervisors Approve Resolution To Condemn Naming Of Hospital After Mark Zuckerberg →
Accountability and Representation

#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

Accountability and Representation

Nov 10 – 13: Join the Facebook Logout

We’re joining Kairos and dozens of other organizations in asking as many people as possible to log off of Facebook and Instagram from Nov. 10 – 13. Take the pledge to logout.

For years Facebook has been rife with scandals and bad decisions, including Cambridge Analytica, ignoring disinformation for profit, poor content moderation, and being investigated for antitrust concerns. Every bad decision Facebook makes affects our lives — because the online world doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and there are real-world consequences to Facebook’s irresponsibility. 

We decided enough is enough. 

Continue reading Nov 10 – 13: Join the Facebook Logout →