Civil Rights and Public Interest Groups Urge Tech Companies to Enact Meaningful Changes

Census and Data Equity News, Center for Civil Rights and Technology News, Fighting Hate & Bias News, Voting Rights News 08.9.19

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shin Inouye, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, [email protected], 202.869.0398
Phoebe Plagens, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., [email protected], 212.965.2235

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and 49 civil rights, public interest, labor, faith, and technology organizations issued the below statement ahead of today’s White House summit with technology companies on violent online extremism:

The White House summit on violent online extremism must not be used to divert attention away from the real actions these companies should take right now to reduce online activities that endanger communities of color, religious minorities, and other marginalized communities.

We call on major technology companies to make the following commitments at the summit and publicly:

  • Create a real plan to address the fostering of hate on their online platforms. Companies must implement consistent and sophisticated content policies that clarify how they will address white nationalism and white supremacy. They must share how these policies will be implemented to ensure users’ due process rights are upheld.
  • Condemn President Trump’s hate-filled statements and actions toward people of color, immigrants, Muslims and other religious minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community.
  • Acknowledge that so-called predictive technologies are not able to predict instances of mass violence and that these technologies have often been damaging to marginalized communities.
  • Acknowledge that foreign actors, including Russian operatives, have used and continue to use online platforms to influence our elections and to suppress voting in violation of U.S. law.
  • Agree to work to protect the integrity of the 2020 Census.
  • Reaffirm their commitment to increasing the diversity of employment in the tech industry in all jobs so that marginalized communities are part of the creation and implementation of online products.

The signatories are listed below.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc
9to5
Algorithmic Justice League
American Federation of Teachers
Andrew Goodman Foundation
Arab American Institute
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism-California State University, San Bernardino
Coalition on Human Needs
Common Cause
Crescent City Media Group
Equal Justice Society
Fair Count
Farmworker Justice
Free Press Action
Human Rights Campaign
Japanese American Citizens League
Kairos
League of Women Voters of U.S.
Matthew Shepard Foundation
MediaJustice
NAACP
National Association of Social Workers
National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD)
National Consumer Law Center
National Council of Churches
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
National Health Law Program
National Hispanic Media Coalition
National LGBTQ Task Force
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Urban League
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
New America’s Open Technology Institute
OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates
Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative)
Public Knowledge
SEIU
South Asian Network
The Campaign to TAKE ON HATE
The Sikh Coalition
Transformative Justice Coalition
UnidosUS
United Church of Christ, OC Inc.
United We Dream
Voto Latino

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.