| Friend,
A damning new report from ProPublica and The Washington Post found that between Election Day 2020 and the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, Facebook hosted over 650,000 hateful disinformation posts about the presidential race on its platform.1 Calls for violence on the platform were all inspired and stoked by the “Big Lie” that the election had been stolen.
Let’s be clear: The so-called Big Lie is founded on no actual evidence and both bipartisan election officials and nonpartisan election experts across the country have rebuked it. Yet social-media platforms — especially Facebook — have allowed misleading and violent content to fester. The company itself took no mitigating steps to fact-check these lies or stem the spread of this content. Help us stop the spread of the Big Lie and other harmful disinformation today. Sign the petition It’s 2022. And while it’s a new year, we’re dealing with the same problems. We know disinformation disrupts our ability to access and disseminate accurate information — and this leads to real-world harms like voter suppression, an insufficient public-health response to the pandemic, and growing numbers of domestic extremists who are willing to sow violence against democracy.
That’s why now more than ever, we need your help to defend against disinformation.
We’re building power with the Disinfo Defense League,2 a network of over 230 organizations — including Free Press — led by people of color who are fighting the good fight against disinformation. Last month, the League launched a strategic and specific set of policy and regulatory solutions to quell disinformation by promoting accurate news and information, protecting civil and human rights, and fostering an informed electorate.3
This roadmap calls on policymakers to center civil rights, transparency and privacy online. Here are the highlights: Banning discriminatory algorithms Limiting Big Tech’s use of our personal information Enhancing data transparency Enhancing transparency about the impacts of the platforms’ business models Protecting whistleblowers Establishing individuals’ rights to control their own data Expanding Federal Trade Commission oversight Enlisting the assistance of other federal agencies that protect the public with specialized expertise Establishing strong consumer protections Against the backdrop of an ever-changing pandemic — with the 2022 midterm elections just months away, and growing polarization and extremism across the nation — disinformation fuels the worst in us while obscuring our common humanity. The time for action is now.
Sign our petition to support the goals of the Disinfo Defense League.
It’s an honor to be in this fight alongside you —
Rose, Candace and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net
P.S. We need you to tell your policymakers that it’s far past time to take action on the disinformation crisis. Sign our petition to help us fight disinformation about our elections, our democracy and each other.
1. “Facebook Hosted Surge of Misinformation and Insurrection Threats in Months Leading Up to Jan. 6 Attack, Records Show,” ProPublica, Jan. 4, 2022 2. Disinfo Defense League: https://www.disinfodefenseleague.org/ 3. “Disinfo Defense League Releases Policy Demands for Addressing Racialized Disinformation,” Free Press, Dec. 7, 2021 | 