NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson told Cheddar he is "not surprised" a recent meeting between Facebook and civil rights organizations did not end as hoped.
The social media giant reached out as major advertisers pulled marketing campaigns, unhappy with the company's decision to allow hateful content and misinformation to live on the platform.
"Unfortunately we’re not surprised. After two years of discussion with Facebook, we’ve heard statements of value, we’ve heard statements of concern, and how we all agree. What we have not seen is action," Johnson stated.
The recent ad boycott began in the weeks after the police killing of George Floyd. As massive demonstrations took place across the county, Trump posted a message on Twitter and Facebook, warning, in part, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Twitter opted to issue a warning about the post, while Facebook decided to let it remain unaltered. Zuckerberg explained in a post that the company's "position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies."
"For Mark Zuckerberg or anyone else to suggest that hate speech is ok as long as it’s partisan, that’s asinine thinking," Johnson said.
Refusal to curb the spread of hate speech and misinformation on Facebook, Johnson said, threatens American governance.
"If we demean the civility of our discourse to say that if someone says something racialized, it’s ok, it’s partisan, that’s no way to run this democracy," he noted.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
House Republicans in key battleground districts are working to contain the political fallout expected when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. For a critical sliver of the GOP majority, the impending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 could be a major political liability as they potentially face midterm headwinds in a 2026 election critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda. For Democrats, the party’s strategy for capturing the House majority revolves around pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on Republicans.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
The two-sentence footnote raised serious concerns about accuracy and credibility.
