Facebook: Fire Kaplan and Stop the Racism

Facebook is out of control.

A recent New York Times investigation revealed that the organization’s leaders have stooped to a new low: Among other things, vice president of global public policy Joel Kaplan hired a notorious GOP public-relations firm to push far-right conspiracy theories to smear the racial-justice group Color Of Change and others.1

It’s clear that Facebook engaged in this effort to stop these groups from asking hard questions about how the company is harming its users and our democracy.

But the investigation reveals something even deeper: Some leaders at Facebook — a platform that’s drawn lawmakers’ scrutiny for its role in fueling the fires of hate, state surveillance and even genocide2 — have no problem taking pages from the White-supremacist playbook to further their goals.

This report deepens what we already knew: Facebook has an outsized hold on the flow of ideas in our society — and a crisis of morality in its boardroom.

The implications are beyond dangerous: Join our call for Facebook to clean up its act. That should start with firing Joel Kaplan for leading a hateful campaign against Color Of Change and others.

1. “Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis,” The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html

2. “U.N. Investigators Cite Facebook Role in Myanmar Crisis,” Reuters, March 12, 2018: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-facebook/u-n-investigators-cite-facebook-role-in-myanmar-crisis-idUSKCN1GO2PN