| Dear Katy, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump had a secret dinner during Zuckerberg's last trip to the capital, and Americans deserve to know what they discussed. After all, Facebook lets lying right-wing outlets like Breitbart "fact check" the news and lets anyone put outright lies in political ads. Zuckerberg has been palling around with racist media figures like Tucker Carlson while promising to "fight" Democratic candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren – and now he's dining with Trump.1 Facebook is a massive source of right-wing disinformation that may be making promises to Trump behind closed doors. We need Congress to investigate. Tell Congress: Investigate Facebook's role in the right-wing disinformation machine. Click here to sign the petition. Facebook's toxic role in distorting our democracy goes way beyond Zuckerberg and Trump's budding alliance. Facebook: - Promotes right-wing news outlets – letting racist, lie-filled sites like The Daily Caller and Breitbart.com flag misleading posts on its platform and boosting sites like The Daily Wire – while penalizing left-wing organizing.2,3
- Profits off the Trump campaign – to the tune of more than $1 million per month for false advertisements and promotions for contests without winners – while adopting an official policy allowing ads to contain outright lies.4,5
- Permits hate speech – to the degree where rhetoric on the platform is credibly linked to violence and even genocide – while providing advertisers the ability to target and instigate violent groups like self-identified "Jew haters."6,7
Now, we learn that Zuckerberg and Trump-supporting Facebook board member Peter Thiel dined with Trump last month. It marks the second time in recent months that Zuckerberg has met with Trump, and the public is in the dark about what they discussed. These secret meetings come while Facebook is under investigation by 47 state attorneys general and regulators in multiple nations, and just after the company paid a record-breaking $5 billion fine for privacy violations that allowed a right-wing firm to help sway the 2016 election.8,9,10 Facebook is corrupt, arrogant, out-of-control – and dangerous. If the company is actively helping spread right-wing disinformation or looking the other way while propagandists stir up violence, the public deserves to know. Tell Congress: Investigate Facebook's role in the right-wing disinformation machine. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/facebook-disinformation/?t=9&akid=35246%2E12967895%2Ehgdsg6 Thank you for speaking out, Jelani Drew, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Eric Lutz, "Mark Zuckerberg had a secret dinner with Trump and Peter Thiel," Vanity Fair, Nov. 21, 2019.
- Judd Legum, "Facebook allows prominent right-wing website to break the rule," Popular Information, Oct. 28, 2019.
- Jamie Ross, "Facebook Brings in Right-Wing Website the Daily Caller to Fact-Check Articles," The Daily Beast, April 18, 2019.
- Judd Legum, "Facebook says Trump can lie in his Facebook ads," Popular Information, Oct. 3, 2019.
- Judd Legum, "The Trump campaign holds a lot of contests. Does anyone win?" Popular Information, Nov. 3, 2019.
- Evelyn Douek, "Facebook's Role in the Genocide in Myanmar: New Reporting Complicates the Narrative," LawFare, Oct. 22, 2018.
- Julia Angwin, Madeleine Varner and Ariana Tobin, "Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach 'Jew Haters,'" ProPublica, Sep. 14, 2017.
- Lutz, "Mark Zuckerberg had a secret dinner with Trump and Peter Thiel."
- Cecilia Kang, Mike Isaac and Nathaniel Popper, "Facebook's Zuckerberg, Accused of Lying, Withstands a Washington 'Beating,'" The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2019.
- Tony Romm, "Facebook will have to pay a record-breaking fine for violating users' privacy. But the FTC wanted more." The Washington Post, July 22, 2019.
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
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