UnidosUS Ends Corporate Engagement with Facebook In Wake of Whistleblower Revelations

WASHINGTON, DC—Calling this week’s Facebook whistleblower revelations the “last straw,” UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, announced today that it has severed ties with Facebook, returning a recent grant back to the company. The decision comes amid revelations on the role that the platform has played in intentionally perpetuating products and policies that harm the Latino community and undermine democratic ideals.

“This week’s revelations from Facebook’s own internal documents confirmed what we have long suspected: Facebook has engaged with us and the civil rights community in bad faith,” stated UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía. “We have called attention repeatedly to concerns about the negative impact that the proliferation of hate and misinformation on the platform has had on the Latino community. We know now that Facebook’s failure to adequately address those concerns was deliberate and resulted in even greater levels of hate and misinformation on the site.

“Our experience over the past few years has shown that it’s not possible for Facebook to hold itself accountable. Going forward, we will be supporting both regulatory and legislative efforts to provide public oversight to ensure long-overdue and much-needed transparency and accountability of social media platforms, starting with Facebook,” said Murguía.

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