Facebook issued the first major update of 2019 on the progress of its ongoing civil rights audit. Facebook is making an internal civil rights task force permanent, COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a blog post.
The Facebook task force, chaired by COO Sheryl Sandberg, follows pressure from civil rights groups and minorities who say the company has not done enough to combat anti-democratic tactics such as voter intimidation and suppression.
Over the past few months, Facebook has been making changes around enforcing against hate, fighting discrimination in ads and protecting against misinformation and suppression in the upcoming U.S. presidential election and 2020 Census, according to the progress report.
Facebook’s civil rights audit began in 2018 at the encouragement of the civil rights community and as part of the company’s commitment to advance civil rights on the platform, The audit is intended to create a forum for dialogue between the civil rights community and Facebook to inform the company’s examination of critical areas of concern.- Facebook
According to the sources who attended the talks with Murphy and other Facebook officials, contended that, while crucial milestones reached in some areas, the final document achieves little in the way of ensuring that Facebook will adequately address the root causes of its failed moderation policies.
However, the announcement came as a leading civil rights expert released her second interim report in a multi-year audit of the social media company.
