The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Demands Meta Restore Content Moderation and Fact Checking

Center for Civil Rights and Technology News 05.8.25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]

New letter uplifts petition with 16,000 signatures in support of content moderation and fact checking across Meta platforms in the U.S., highlights failures of a Community Notes-only model

WASHINGTON — The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights today demanded that Meta restore content moderation and professional fact checking on its platforms in the United States. This call accompanied a petition that garnered more than 16,000 signatures from concerned individuals across the country regarding unchecked extremism on Meta platforms.

In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Maya Wiley, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference, wrote, “Social media platforms are supposed to be places we go to connect, to learn from each other, and to organize. Instead, in capitulating to Donald Trump and the extremist MAGA agenda, you’ve made Meta’s platforms into places where mis- and disinformation flourish alongside hate speech. Exposing your users to this dangerous content is a violation of your own policy and of basic human decency. Your users are taking notice.”

Meta officially phased out its fact-checking efforts in April as part of a broader pattern of retreat from content moderation across social media platforms. Meta and Zuckerberg are exposing vulnerable communities across the U.S. — both online and offline — to hate speech, dangerous rhetoric, malicious threats, real violence, and harmful policies around immigration, trans youth, and reproductive freedom.

The letter also tackled Meta’s strategy of implementing “Community Notes” like those on X, which have failed in preventing the spread of harmful misinformation and violent discourse. According to research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH):

  • X’s Community Notes failed to correct 74% of misleading election posts and allowed false narratives like the Springfield, Ohio immigrant hoax to spiral into mainstream discourse, spreading disinformation and causing harm.
  • Misleading posts about U.S. elections that did not receive Community Notes received2 billion views on X.
  • Facebook and Instagram users could encounter at least 277 million more instances of hate speech and other harmful content each year because of Meta’s decision.

Wiley highlighted “[o]ne of the clearest examples of the failure of Community Notes is the false and repugnant rumor about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio that dominated last election cycle. The disinformation began when an X account called End Wokeness (that reportedly belongs to alt-right influencer Jack Posobiec) constructed a false narrative out of an unverified post from a small Facebook group and a picture of a Black man holding a goose: the account spread that lie to their three million followers. The post on X did not receive a user-submitted Community Note debunking the claim until four days later, but by that point, the damage was done. In this instance, Community Notes were too slow and not enough to prevent this false, anti-immigrant narrative from paving the way for dangerous policies like the SAVE Act, which would limit voters’ access to the ballot box, and the terrifying ICE abductions we’ve witnessed.”

The letter is available here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 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.

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