Facebook has a Civil Rights Problem
There has been no shortage of headline-grabbing Facebook scandals in recent years. From its countless privacy violations, to its biased censorship, to its role spreading misinformation, to its interference in elections in the U.S. and abroad, Facebook has taken well-deserved flak across a broad range of issues. However, one major area of abuse has remained relatively overlooked: Facebook’s discrimination against minority groups.
African Americans, Hispanics, LGBTQ people, the disabled, and other marginalized communities have all been victim to consistent abuse by Facebook. This isn’t to suggest that Mark Zuckerberg and Co. are personally biased against any of these communities. Instead, the problem lies at the core of Facebook’s business model.
“Facebook is a surveillance platform that learns virtually everything about its users, so that Facebook can sell off their personal data to be exploited by Facebook’s true customers: marketers and advertisers.”
This includes users’ demographics such as race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, etc. This has led to myriad cases in which bad actors have unfairly targeted and discriminated against minority members. Here are just a few examples that have recently come to light.
Facebook Ads Target African Americans to Suppress Their Votes
It was recently discovered that Facebook allowed political ads targeting African Americans aimed to suppress their votes in the 2016 election. This led the NAACP to return a donation it had received from Facebook and launch a week-long boycott of Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram. In a statement, NAACP President Derrick Johnson declared, “It is crucial that we bring awareness to the fraudulent and inflammatory ads placed on Facebook, the data privacy mishaps, and the damaging impact on African-Americans.”
Facebook Targets LGBTQ Users with Ads for “Conversion Therapy”
The LGBTQ community is another group that has been repeatedly harmed by Facebook. The social network was recently caught targeting LGBTQ users with ads for “gay conversion therapy.” Facebook subsequently removed these ads, but only after being publicly called out for its actions by investigative reporters and the LGBTQ community.
Facebook Enables Discriminatory Housing Ads
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently sued Facebook, alleging that the company violated the Fair Housing Act, “encouraging, enabling, and causing unlawful discrimination” by restricting certain users from viewing housing ads. HUD Secretary Ben Carson stated, “Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live.” Unfortunately, this is nothing new for Facebook. According to ProPublica, Facebook has a long history of allowing advertisers to “exclude black, Hispanic, and other ‘ethnic affinities’” from seeing certain ads.
Facebook Disproportionally Censors Minority Members
According to a recent report from USA TODAY, Facebook persistently censors and bans minority group members simply for calling out the racism and bigotry that they experience. According to black rights organizer, DiDi Delgado, “Black, LGBT, non-male and women identified users are still disproportionately banned for speaking out against oppression.”
· Facebook suspended the account of black activist Ijeoma Oluo after she called out the racist threats she had received from other Facebook users.
· Facebook recently banned ads that were celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month after Facebook classified the ads as being “political.”
· Facebook removed a photo of model Vicky Balch who has an amputated limb. After a complaint was filed, a Facebook employee reportedly replied: “Some people find it disturbing to see pictures of disabled people.”
· Facebook recently changed its community standards to ban LGBTQ users from expressing their sexual preferences and using common LGBTQ terms such as “top” and “bottom.”
“Social media was never meant to divide and categorize people. Its purpose is to unite people from all walks of life and give them a platform to communicate and share.”
Facebook’s failure to protect and support minority groups is symptomatic of the company’s dehumanization and categorization of its users, whom Facebook views as products to sell and target, not customers to serve.
The solution is for users to stand up to Facebook and choose a social network like MeWe, where such discriminatory practices are not tolerated — or even possible. Unlike Facebook, MeWe has no ads, no targeting, and no newsfeed manipulation. This means that you have total control of your newsfeed and what you see on MeWe. No one can pay MeWe to boost their posts and target you. Instead, you only see content from the members, groups, and pages that you choose to engage with.
“At MeWe, you are the customer to serve and your race, religion, gender, politics, and sexual orientation are none of the company’s business.”
Sadly, at Facebook the opposite is true. Facebook has proven time and again that it has no interest in providing minority communities — or any of its users — the respect and protection they deserve.
Mark Weinstein is a leading privacy advocate and the CEO of MeWe, the award-winning social network with a Privacy Bill of Rights and the №1 Trending Social Site.
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