- Mark Zuckerberg held a dinner for civil-rights leaders at his house on Monday night, The Washington Post reported.
- A key topic of conversation was said to be Facebook's recent decision to exempt political ads from its fact-checking process, a decision that has been heavily criticized.
- Some of the civil-rights leaders present at the dinner, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, expressed cautious optimism in interviews with The Post.
- NBC separately reported Tuesday that Zuckerberg was unlikely to change his stance on fact-checking but was open to the idea of limiting microtargeting.
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Civil-rights leaders attended a dinner at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's house to try to persuade him to reverse his stance on fact-checking political ads on his platform, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Last month Facebook announced it would exempt political ads from fact-checking, essentially meaning politicians could lie to voters in ads.
The decision led to an intense backlash externally and internally, with 250 Facebook employees signing a letter saying the policy would allow politicians to "weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy." Facebook's former head of global elections integrity operations also laid into the company over the decision in a blistering op-ed article earlier this week.
Roughly 10 representatives from civil-rights groups dined at Zuckerberg's house on Monday night, according to The Post, along with Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and head of communications, Nick Clegg. The meal reportedly lasted two hours and included steak, scallops, and carrots.
The activists reportedly flagged concerns that unchecked political ads could be abused and lead to voter suppression. Rev. Al Sharpton, the president of the National Action Network, told The Post that Zuckerberg had implied the subject was an "evolving kind of policy."
"I am now hopeful about the fact that he was open to the discussion and seemed to be going through a process of trying to get it right," he said, adding: "I'm not where we want to be, but better than where we were."
Not all the guests seemed to come away with the same optimism. Kristen Clarke, the president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said it was "not the end of the conversation," and the organization later published an open letter criticizing what it called Zuckerberg's "poor governance decisions."
"As we enter the 2020 election season and with the 2020 Census on the horizon, time is short for Facebook to rectify the gross deficiencies in its protection of civil rights," the letter said. "Your recent statements to Congress, policy changes, and disregard for your own civil rights audit demonstrate that you still do not grasp — or do not care about — the gravity of the harm you are causing."
Zuckerberg may be open to at least some compromise, however, according to an NBC News report on Tuesday.
Citing high-ranking Facebook sources, NBC News reported that Zuckerberg was unlikely to change his mind on the fact-checking of political ads but was open to ideas about how to limit the spread of lies. That might, for example, involve reducing politicians' ability to narrowly target segments of voters online with their ads. The practice, known as microtargeting, makes it difficult for third-parties to see what information is being distributed.
You can read The Washington Post's full report here.
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