For Facebook, Civil Rights is Merely Politics as Usual

This week Facebook released the final report of its civil rights audit. The report does the job of outlining Facebook’s multitude of civil rights problems calling some of Facebook’s decisions on hate speech and voter suppression “vexing and heartbreaking.” It notes where Facebook has made improvements and the vast majority of problems that remain unaddressed. It also provides a path forward for Facebook to address their continued civil rights failures.

What it doesn’t offer is any commitment from Facebook to enact any of the recommended policies. The authors of the report make suggestions and will continue to consult with Facebook on civil rights issues. But as of right now Facebook hasn’t committed to anything beyond that.

Facebook continues to treat civil rights as a partisan political issue and a PR problem. Instead of focusing their civil rights work on protecting their users from hate, harassment, and harm, Facebook’s actions always center first on playing politics and attempting to minimize damage. The very existence and rollout of the civil rights audit is a clear illustration of how Facebook only pays lip service to civil rights groups while continuing to do a little as possible to fix systemic issues on the platform. The audit only exists because of continued pressure from civil rights groups who had been asking for…