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.
U.S. states could face some hurdles as they experiment with road usage charging programs aimed at one day replacing motor fuel taxes, which are generating less each year, in part due to fuel efficiency and the rise of electric cars.
The defiance of restrictions in North Dakota on what bathrooms transgender students can use in public schools and universities shows that it's not exactly clear how bathroom laws will play out in local communities after being enacted in at least 10 states with Republican-controlled legislatures.
The Supreme Court on Monday left in place an appellate ruling barring a North Carolina public charter school from requiring girls to wear skirts to school.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding almost $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero- and low-emission buses, with the money going to transit projects in 46 states and territories.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Supreme Court conservatives caused a healthcare crisis in America and blasted abortion bans in Republican-led states.
To many observers, the efforts to roll back two policies that disproportionately help Black students and other students of color reflect a backlash to racial progress in higher education.
