| Tell Congress: "Facebook is an even more insidious hate-for-profit machine than Fox News. Facebook has too much power and too much control over the internet, with devastating effects for our country and our democracy. It's time to break up Facebook and the big tech monopolies." | Friend, The evidence is mounting: Facebook is enabling the far right. First, Facebook was caught repeatedly bending the rules for Trump, even during an election campaign. After one of Trump's incendiary posts in response to police killing George Floyd ignited outrage across America, he called Zuckerberg -- who left the post untouched.1 Then it emerged that the far-right extremist who killed two people Tuesday night in Kenosha, Wisconsin was part of an event organized on Facebook to threaten protesters.2 This is part of a larger pattern emerging of collaboration between Zuckerberg, Trump, and the far right. It's clearer than ever before: Facebook poses a real threat to our democracy. Sign the petition to tell Congress and federal regulators: Break up Facebook! After protests broke out in May following the police killing of George Floyd, Trump posted an incendiary comment on Facebook and Twitter: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." The phrase harkened back to comments that a segregationist police chief had made in reference to protestors during the Civil Rights Movement. Twitter took down the post for violating its policies. Then, Trump picked up his phone and called his friend Mark Zuckerberg, who told Trump the post "put him in a difficult position." But Facebook didn't take it down. Instead, Zuckerberg explained his decision for leaving the post untouched, saying that Trump's phone call informed his choice.3 As it turned out, that wasn't the first time Facebook had bent the rules for the president. In the early days of Trump's campaign for president, Mark Zuckerberg decided not to enforce rules against hate speech and misinformation when it was "newsworthy," because enforcing such rules would require him to take down some of Trump's posts.4 Employees across the company have spoken out against Zuckerberg's playbook for handling Trump's posts. But the problem is that Facebook makes money from posts and clicks. As one former Facebook executive wrote, "The real problem is that Facebook profits partly by amplifying lies and selling dangerous targeting tools that allow political operatives to engage in a new level of information warfare."5 Facebook's business model depends on stoking right-wing extremism. Now we've seen the consequences of that in Kenosha. Facebook is too big and too powerful, and it must be broken up -- now. Will you join me in telling Congress and federal regulators: Break up Facebook! Facebook doesn't just bend the rules for Trump to spew his lies on the platform. Zuckerberg has also followed Trump's lead on equating white supremacists with people protesting against racism and fascism. Last week, when Facebook finally took action to stop the spread of QAnon conspiracy theories which have proliferated on its platform, it also banned news sites that work to expose white supremacists and neo-Nazis -- drawing a false and dangerous equivalence.6 The president and the man in charge of the world's largest social media company shouldn't be working together to control what information we can consume. Congress and federal regulators must act and break up the company. Sign the petition: Tell Congress and federal regulators to break up Facebook! Thanks, Team Progress
1 Washington Post, "How Facebook wrote its rules to accommodate Trump," June 28, 2020.
2 CNN, "Facebook investigating online activity around Kenosha shootings," August 26, 2020.
3 Washington Post, "How Facebook wrote its rules to accommodate Trump," June 28, 2020.
4 Ibid.
5 Washington Post, "Perspective | I worked on political ads at Facebook. They profit by manipulating us," November 4, 2019.
6 The Intercept, "Facebook's Ban on Far-Left Pages Is an Extension of Trump Propaganda, August 20, 2020. | .png){kind=logo}
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