The previously unreported debate is an example of how Facebook’s decisions in the name of being neutral and race-blind in fact come at the expense of minorities and particularly people of color. Far from protecting Black and other minority users, Facebook executives wound up instituting half-measures after the “worst of the worst” project that left minorities more likely to encounter derogatory and racist language on the site, the people said.
Malkia Devich-Cyril, a Black and queer activist, and the former executive director of the Center for Media Justice, who ran two Black Lives Matter pages on Facebook in 2016, said they had to stop managing the pages because they were “harassed relentlessly,” including receiving death threats.
“It sickened me. As an activist — whose calling is to stand on the front lines and fight for change — it created in me a kind of fear. If that kind of chill factor in a democratic state is what Facebook is going for, they have achieved it.”
Malkia Devich-Cyril via Washington Post
