Facebook’s Voter Information Center a Welcome Step, Company Must Do More
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:
Civil Rights Groups Call for Strong Guardrails in Hiring Assessment Technologies
WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Leadership Conference Education Fund and more than 24 civil rights, employment, and privacy organizations today introduced principles to guide the development, use, auditing, and oversight of hiring assessment technologies. The groups urge policymakers, vendors, and employers to protect the civil rights of working people by ensuring new assessment tools that rely on algorithms and artificial intelligence do not further entrench decades of discrimination. Without guardrails in place, new assessments threaten to perpetuate unjust hiring practices based on race, ethnicity, sex, disability, age, and other factors.
Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit Shows Need for Reforms
WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and leading civil rights groups issued the following statement on Facebook’s civil rights audit:
Readout of Civil Rights Leaders Call with Facebook
WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., issued the following joint statement on their call with Facebook leadership:
Facebook’s Latest Policy on Hate Speech and Voter Disinformation Misses the Mark
WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and leading civil rights groups issued the following statement on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest policy announcement on hate speech and voter disinformation:
In Essence, Civil Rights Leaders, FCC Commissioner Call for Universal Broadband Access
WASHINGTON – Alongside civil rights leaders, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission today outlined in Essence why the nation’s leadership must enact a robust plan to address the digital divide exacerbated by COVID-19. Vanita Gupta, president and CEO at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Geoffrey Starks, FCC commissioner, Reverend Al Sharpton, Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, and Maurita Coley, president and CEO of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, address how lack of access to broadband excludes communities, especially those of color, from vital resources such as educational and telemedicine programs, as well as employment opportunities.
Civil Rights Groups Call for Protection of Democracy and Privacy as Tech Responds to Pandemic
WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, New America's Open Technology Institute, and 83 civil rights, civil liberties, labor, and consumer protection organizations today released principles to guide employers, policymakers, businesses, and public health authorities as they consider strategies to reopen American society and deploy information technologies designed specifically to monitor, track, or trace individuals in order to mitigate or respond to the COVID-19 public health crisis. The groups note the need to protect the civil rights and privacy of all persons, especially communities of color and other populations who are at high risk for the virus, when considering the deployment of technological measures.
Trump’s Order is More Bark Than Bite
WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on President Trump’s Executive Order on content moderation by social media companies: