House Dems demand Facebook remove anti-Muslim content before it reaches users

Slow action on hateful content has stoked violence against the targeted community, 30 lawmakers wrote

Lawmakers are asking Facebook to take additional measures to remove anti-Muslim content from its platform, alleging slow action on hateful content has stoked violence against the targeted community.

In a letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 30 lawmakers – led by Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. – accused the social media giant of “inaction” in response to bigotry and hate directed at the Muslim community.

“We write to express our deep concern regarding anti-Muslim bigotry on your platform and the inaction by Facebook in response to the abuse of your platform to dehumanize Muslims and stoke violence and genocide against Muslims around the world,” the letter read. “Facebook has touted its ability to preemptively block 99 percent of all content related to child pornography and extremist violence, and it should be able to do the same with anti-Muslim content or any hate content directed at a religious or ethnic group.”

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Lawmakers allege that reported pages are not addressed promptly – if at all – and named several instances where Facebook did not take swift action –  including an armed protest planned at the 2019 annual Islamic Society of North America conference.

A spokesperson for Facebook did not return Fox News’ request for comment.

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Several steps the lawmakers recommended that Facebook could take to mitigate threats against the Muslim community included forming a working group focused on the issue, enforcing hate content policies more strongly, committing to an independent third-party review, implementing regular anti-discrimination training for staff, and removing hateful anti-Muslim content before it is seen.

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