Yesterday, Facebook announced additional changes in response to the #StopHateForProfit advertising boycott that was launched by various civil rights organizations in mid-June.  The announcement also comes on the heels of Facebook being called out for running, earlier this month, a racist ad from "White Wellbeing Australia." 

Advertising Age reported that Facebook told advertisers that was "implementing changes to our content policies, including an expanded policy that bans praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism, and a new policy that prohibits content encouraging or calling for the harassment of others."  (We previously blogged about changes that Facebook agreed to make in June addressing hate speech.) 

Here are some of the measures that Facebook said that it is taking in its most recent annoucement: 

  • Facebook is going to establish a senior executive role focused on civil rights issues to "build out a team over time and help us establish a long-term civil rights infrastructure"; 
  • Facebook committed to a brand safety audit that will be conducted by the Media Rating Council and said that it will continue to work with advertising industry bodies such as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media to audit its brand safety tools and practices.  Facebook noted that advertisers are not required to pay for advertising placements that in videos or instant articles that violate Facebook's policies; 
  • Facebook said that it is "a pioneer in using artificial intelligence technology to remove hateful content at scale and we are working hard every day to take down violating content with greater precision and speed; and
  • Noting that it has banned 250 white supremacist organizations from Facebook and Instagram, Facebook said that it has made changes to how it enforces its policies, including "removing groups in full if we find that the group admin is participating in or encouraging violating behavior or content."

Originally published by Frankfurt Kurnit, July 2020

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