Facebook’s Voter Information Center a Welcome Step, Company Must Do More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shin Inouye, [email protected], 202.869.0398

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on Facebook’s Voter Information Center:  

“With just 82 days until the election, Facebook’s decision to launch an information center to empower voters with the tools they need to safely cast a ballot during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is an important development. Civil rights groups urged Facebook to create such a hub, especially as states are adjusting voting methods amid the pandemic and as disinformation campaigns intensify. But Facebook must also do more to combat the weaponization of voting and election disinformation and misinformation on its platform. Our democracy depends on it.”

BACKGROUND

Civil rights groups have worked for three years to convince Facebook leadership that it must take clear and unequivocal action to address the use of its site to spread voter disinformation, to intimidate and incite hate against vulnerable populations, and to otherwise undermine democracy. Groups have also shared their expertise with Facebook leadership to guide and inform necessary changes and encouraged the company to create an internal infrastructure of civil rights expertise to inform change.

 The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 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.