
Facebook audit: Trump held to different standard, impeding civil rights - aspenmayer
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/9/21318896/facebook-civil-rights-audit-hate-speech-failed-zuckerberg-white-nationalism-sheryl-sandberg
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aspenmayer
The audit report:

[https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Civil-
Rights...](https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Civil-Rights-Audit-
Final-Report.pdf)

From the audit’s About section:

> This investigation into Facebook’s policies and practices began in 2018 at
> the behest and encouragement of the civil rights community and some members
> of Congress, proceeded with Facebook’s cooperation, and is intended to help
> the company identify, prioritize, and implement sustained and comprehensive
> improvements to the way it impacts civil rights.

> The Audit was led by Laura W. Murphy, a civil rights and civil liberties
> leader, along with a team from civil rights law firm Relman Colfax, led by
> firm partner Megan Cacace.

> During the first six months of the audit, Laura W. Murphy interviewed and
> gathered the concerns of over 100 civil rights organizations. Over the
> course of the Audit’s two year engagement, that number exceeded 100
> organizations, hundreds of advocates and several members of Congress. The
> focus areas for the audit, which were informed by those interviews, were
> described in the first preliminary audit report, released in December 2018.
> That was followed by a second update in July 2019, which identified areas of
> increasing concern for the Auditors. This third report will be the Auditors’
> final analysis.

> The Civil Rights Audit is not an audit of Facebook’s performance as compared
> to its tech industry peers. In some areas it may outperform peers with
> respect to civil rights, and in other areas, it may not. The Auditors are
> not privy to how other companies operate and therefore do not draw
> comparisons in this report. The scope of the work on the Audit was focused
> only on the US and the core Facebook app (rather than Instagram, WhatsApp,
> or other Facebook, Inc. products).

Original title was vague. It was, including lede:

Why Facebook failed its civil rights audit

The new, deeply critical report highlights the tension between free expression
and hate speech on the social network.

