Civil Rights Organizations Concerned Facebook Censoring Human Rights Content

Civil rights organizations wants Facebook (FB) to clarify its position on removing videos and other content that document human rights issues.
Mark Zuckerberg, FB’s CEO, has been asked to clarify his company’s position on protecting human rights’ documentation.
Facebook needs to be more forthcoming about the kinds of content it takes down according to the 73 organizations that sent a letter to him.

The groups are asking for clarity on the FB position on removing videos and other content that highlight civil rights issues.  The groups asked FB for clarity about decisions to censor content and to create a public appeals platform where users can ask for censored content to be reinstated, plus undergo an external audit of its policies and to refuse to disclose customer content and data to third party agencies unless required by law.

The letter states that the groups are “deeply concerned with the recent cases of Facebook censoring human rights documentation.”

“With the onset of Facebook Live, your company is taking on an increasingly central role in controlling media that circulates through the public sphere,” the letter states. “News is not just getting shared on FB: it’s getting broken there.”

FB is looking into the letter:  “We have received the letter and are reviewing it. As we recently said, we welcome feedback from our community as we begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest.”