The Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders will sit down with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discuss the social networking site’s political ad policy, The Hill reports.
Zuckerberg is set to meet with members of the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and others to address recent controversy over Facebook’s policy towards political ads, and whether they are enabling the spread of misinformation.
"Last week, I sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, requesting a face-to-face meeting with me and other national civil rights leaders to discuss Facebook’s policy to decline to fact-check the accuracy of politicians’ content on Facebook," Sharpton announced in a statement.
"I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately," he said.
A Facebook spokesperson told the Hill that Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg “will host a dinner with leaders in the civil rights community to hear their direct perspective and feedback.”
The announcement comes a day after rival social media giant Twitter announced that it would no longer allow political ads on its platform.
“The fact that Twitter and even some Facebook employees have taken strong stands on this issue only furthers the need for Mr. Zuckerberg to reconsider his position," Sharpton said. "In an era of voter suppression, we must press with all we have to protect our civil rights and voting rights. This is not an issue of free speech; this is an issue of voter misinformation and voter suppression.”
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