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One Year After Stop Hate for Profit: Progress Update from the Coalition

“One year ago, the Stop Hate for Profit coalition called for Facebook to address the prevalence of hate, racism, and misinformation on their platforms. Led by prominent civil rights groups and nonprofit organizations including ADL, Color Of Change, Common Sense, Free Press, LULAC, Mozilla, NAACP, National Hispanic Media Coalition, and Sleeping Giants, Stop Hate for Profit garnered the support of thousands of businesses that paused spending on Facebook and Instagram advertisements in July 2020. Over the past 12 months, it has become clear that the concerns raised by Stop Hate for Profit have only increased in urgency. We’ve seen a surge of extremist conspiracy theories, hate, and violence. The coronavirus pandemic was twisted to justify anti-Asian and antisemitic attacks, the country was roiled by unprecedented political polarization and a divisive election, and thousands attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to violently overturn a valid presidential election—an event that was planned online in plain view. But we still lack adequate regulation, bipartisan political action, and, seemingly, the marketplace power to hold social media companies accountable for their role in amplifying hate and racism.  Did Stop Hate for Profit work? The Coalition has evaluated the progress Facebook and a number of other large social media companies have made over the past year in addressing hate and racism on their platforms and found Facebook made the least progress toward meeting the Stop Hate for Profit coalition’s demands. Read the full analysis here…”

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