Library Board of Trustees Agenda and Packet 2020 07 23

Metadata

Thumbnails

Annotations

Should the Library stop using Facebook? For several years the Anti -Defamation League (ADL), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and several other civil rights groups have been trying to prevent the social media platform, Facebook, from propagating hate speech against Jews, Blacks, LGBTQ people, and other minorities. The ADL and the NAACP have joined with other organizations and businesses to lobby Facebook to change ("Civil rights groups denounce Facebook over hate speech", WaPo, July 7, 2020, B. Ortutay ; https://www.stophateforprofit.org). A two year long internal audit commissioned by Facebook and published on July 8, 2020 characterized 'Facebook's approach to civil rights "too reactive and piecemeal" ' ("Civil rights auditors hammer Facebook for putting political screech above all else". Politico. July 8. 2020 S. Overly). The audit found that Facebook's recent progress on civil-rights was threatened by recent decisions such as not to taking action on Trumps, 'unsubstantiated claims about mail -in ballots' (ibid.) From the auditor's report: "Facebook should do everything in its power to prevent its tools and algorithms from driving people toward self -reinforcing echo chambers of extremism, and that the company must recognize that failure to do so can have dangerous (and life -threatening) real -world consequences." A recent example of Facebook's inaction was letting the President's remark, "One the looting starts, the shooting starts," stand without comment, despites its plain language call to violence. 'Brandon Dail, a front-end engineer at Facebook, said: "Trump's glorification of violence on Facebook is disgusting and it should absolutely be flagged or removed."' (Ibid.) "'Many in the civil rights community have become disheartened, frustrated and angry after years of engagement where they implored the company to do more to advance equality and fight discrimination, while also safeguarding free expression," wrote the auditors, Laura W. Murphy and Megan Cacace, who are civil rights experts and lawyers.' (NYTimes, July 8, 2020, M. Issac). The administration of the Library clearly wants to improve enlightenment about racial equality and social justice issues and they are working with a citizen of Louisville to acquire more books on these topics for the collection (Colorado Hometown Weekly, July 7, 2020, K. Pritchett, The DenverChannel. July 8. 2020). An action that the Library could take immediately is to join the with the ADL and NAACP and other civil rights organizations and businesses to demand change from Facebook by ceasing to use its services and to notify the citizens of Louisville of why it is making this change.