By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Know-how WriterA civil rights group is suing Fb and its executives, saying CEO Mark Zuckerberg made “false and misleading” statements to Congress when he stated the large social community removes hate speech and different materials that violates its guidelines.
The lawsuit, filed by Muslim Advocates in Washington, D.
C.
, Superior Court docket on Thursday, claims Zuckerberg and different senior executives “have engaged in a coordinated marketing campaign to persuade the general public, elected representatives, federal officers, and non-profit leaders within the nation’s capital that Fb is a protected product.
“Fb, the lawsuit alleges, has been repeatedly alerted to hate speech and calls to violence on its platform and finished nothing or little or no.
Making false and misleading statements about eradicating hateful and dangerous content material violates the District of Columbia’s consumer-protection regulation and its bar on fraud, the lawsuit says.
“Day-after-day, strange individuals are bombarded with dangerous content material in violation of Fb’s personal insurance policies on hate speech, bullying, harassment, harmful organizations, and violence,” the lawsuit says.
“Hateful, anti-Muslim assaults are particularly pervasive on Fb.
”In an announcement, Fb stated it doesn’t enable hate speech on its platform and stated it repeatedly works with “consultants, non-profits, and stakeholders to assist ensure Fb is a protected place for everybody, recognizing anti-Muslim rhetoric can take totally different kinds.
The corporate primarily based in Menlo Park, California, stated it has invested in synthetic intelligence applied sciences aimed toward eradicating hate speech and proactively detects 97% of what it removes.
Fb declined to remark past the assertion, which didn’t deal with the lawsuit’s allegations that it has not eliminated hate speech and anti-Muslim networks from its platform even after it was notified of their existence.
For instance, the lawsuit cites analysis by Elon College professor Megan Squire, who printed analysis about anti-Muslim teams on Fb and alerted the corporate.
In response to the lawsuit, Fb didn’t take away the teams — but it surely did change how outdoors lecturers can entry its platform in order that the sort of analysis Squire did could be “inconceivable aside from if finished by Fb workers.
“Fb’s hate speech coverage prohibits focusing on an individual or group with “dehumanizing speech or imagery,” requires violence, references to subhumanity and inferiority in addition to generalizations that state inferiority.
The coverage applies to assaults on the idea of race, faith, nationwide origin, incapacity, non secular affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, intercourse, gender id and critical illness.
However in a single instance from April 25, 2018, Squire reported to Fb a gaggle referred to as “Purge Worldwide,” in line with the lawsuit.
The group’s description reads: “That is an anti Islamic group A Place to share details about what is going on in your a part of the world.
“Fb responded that it could not take away the group or the content material.
The lawsuit cites different examples of teams with names like “Loss of life to Murdering Islamic Muslim Cult Members” and “Filth of Islam” that Fb didn’t take away regardless of being notified, despite the fact that Fb coverage prohibits “reference or comparability to filth” on the idea of faith.
Within the latter case Fb did take away some posts from the group, however not the group itself.
The lawsuit additionally cites an exception Fb made to its coverage for former President Donald Trump, for whom Fb made an exception to its guidelines when he posted as a candidate in 2016 about banning all Muslims from getting into the U.
S.
Zuckerberg and different social media executives have repeatedly testified earlier than Congress about how they fight extremism, hate and misinformation on their platforms.
Zuckerberg instructed the Home Power and Commerce Committee that the problem is “nuanced.
““Any system could make errors” in moderating dangerous materials, he stated.
The plaintiffs search a jury trial and damages of $1,500 per violation.
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Muslim Civil Rights Group Sues Fb Over Hate Speech
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