Civil rights organizations, Facebook employees and more are calling out Mark Zuckerberg for facilitating Trump’s call for violence against protestors fighting against police violence across the country.
“This is one of those moments where the choice is very clear. You either support Black lives or you support being a platform for white supremacy.”
The lines of communication that a lot of civil rights groups have into Facebook were just ineffective in this moment,” says Renderos. “It became clear pretty early on that it was going to be the C-suite that was going to be making a decision around [Trump’s posts] and more explicitly, Mark Zuckerberg.”
“We’re grateful that leaders in the civil rights community took the time to share candid, honest feedback,” a Facebook spokesperson said of the call. “It is an important moment to listen, and we look forward to continuing these conversations.” Renderos, who was not on the call, described this moment as “a new low” for relations between Facebook and the civil rights community.
“[What will happen as the policies Facebook put in place to safeguard elections] “get tested by Trump, Trump’s campaign, the PACs that are supporting Trump? What happens when when we start seeing those kinds of activities pop up again? Will they choose to do nothing?” “Because that has been what what they’ve told us they will do based on the events of this past week.”
“In the long through line of history, I think there have been moments in which there are these kinds of forks in the road of the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do. This will be one of those moments where you look back and you say Mark Zuckerberg was on the wrong side of history here, just like we look back and we say Bull Connor as that sheriff out in Birmingham was wrong.”
Steven Renderos via MotherJones
