Menlo Park — In response to data showing how the Trump campaign uses Facebook to spread racist propaganda, paying the social media giant nearly $5.6 million since March, Color Of Change Senior Campaign Director Brandi Collins-Dexter issued the following response:

“When Facebook touted its updates to the platform’s handling of white nationalism earlier this year, Color Of Change warned of significant oversights. Failure to remove implicit expressions of white nationalism, like stoking fear about ‘caravans’ and ‘invasions’, underscores how Facebook continues to play a role in the propagation of hate. Facebook has a responsibility to immediately find and remove all content that includes such expressions of white nationalism. 

The data shows that Facebook’s broken business model continues to endanger lives: Facebook rakes in millions of advertising dollars, in exchange for providing Trump and the Republican Party a platform to spout dangerous rhetoric about immigrants and people of color. And Facebook leadership’s persistent willingness to provide cover for the spread of right-wing ideology is typified by its shameful decision to start an ‘anti-conservative bias’ report. 

While the country is reeling from this crisis, Facebook is conducting a sham report that is intentionally meant to distract the public from the real dangers that conservative, right-wing ideologies pose to our communities. We are under attack; our civil rights are not negotiable, nor should they be treated as a political tool. Color Of Change and our 1.5 million members call on Facebook to immediately implement  a permanent civil rights infrastructure with oversight that operates outside of political persuasion.”