Facebook Takes Heat From NAACP, Muslim Advocates And Trump

After tweeting that it has returned a donation from Facebook, Inc. FB, the NAACP is calling on users to #LogOutFacebook following Monday’s Senate report that revealed that Russia’s Internet Research Agency has been using Facebook to stir up racial tensions in an effort to influence U.S. elections.

The NAACP and other organizations have been lashing out at Facebook for its data security breaches and its lack of policing its content and user activity.

Call For Action

The NAACP said Facebook users need to voice their concerns by taking action and staying off Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram and WeChat on Tuesday.

“The utilization of Facebook for propaganda promoting disingenuous portrayals of the African American community is reprehensible,” the NAACP said in a statement.

A new report by New Knowledge issued for the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that Russia-linked actors targeted racial activist groups such as Black Lives Matter on Facebook and encouraged them to boycott the 2016 election in an effort to suppress the African American vote.

Leadership Changes

A coalition of social justice groups led by Muslim Advocates is also calling for Facebook to replace CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and head of public policy Joel Kaplan due to Facebook’s shortcomings in policing its content.

“Facebook’s platforms have become a primary organizing tool for white nationalists and hate groups throughout America and even contributing to genocide around the world and, all the while, the company’s leadership has either looked the other way or actively stoked it,” Muslim Advocates said in a statement.

Veteran tech columnist Walt Mossberg, who has written for the Wall Street Journal, Recode and The Verge, also announced he is quitting Facebook. Mossberg said it was simply a personal decision based on the poor quality of content the platform provides and its lack of security.

“This is a decision I am making just for myself. If the company or the service change significantly for the better, in my view, or become effectively regulated, I may resume regular use,” Mossberg said.

Attacks From Both Sides

While Facebook is taking heat from left-wing social justice advocates, it's also getting blasted from the political right by none other than President Donald Trump, who tweeted Tuesday that Facebook, Alphabet, Inc. GOOG GOOGL subsidiary Google, and Twitter, Inc. TWTR are “so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous.”

With more than a billion global users, Facebook has grown to the size at which it has become a popular target for politicians, activists and regulators. So far Tuesday, the criticism doesn’t seem to be impacting Facebook’s stock. Shares are trading higher by 2.7 percent to $144 at time of publication.

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