Civil rights leaders 'disappointed and stunned' by Mark Zuckerberg's 'incomprehensible' position on Trump
Civil rights leaders have expressed their "disappointment" at the "incomprehensible" position of Mark Zuckerberg on Donald Trump's Facebook posts.
The statement came as Mr Zuckerberg continued to take criticism for his approach to the president's recent posts, which have been accused of stoking violence and spreading misleading information about voting by mail.
Twitter has hidden identical versions of those posts and added information boxes to the tweets that were considered to have spread misleading stories. Facebook has opted to take no action, allowing the posts to stay online without any punishment.
That decision has brought criticism from Facebook's own staff, who have staged a walkout and some of whom have resigned in protest against the policy.
Mr Zuckerberg met with civil rights leaders to discuss that position on Monday night, in an attempt to further discuss Facebook's policy on the issue.
But those who attended said he failed to account for the policy and was setting a dangerous statement.
"We are disappointed and stunned by Mark's incomprehensible explanations for allowing the Trump posts to remain up," three civil-rights leaders wrote in a joint statement. "He did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump's call for violence against protesters.
"Mark is setting a very dangerous precedent for other voices who would say similar harmful things on Facebook," the three leaders added.
Signing that statement were Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change.
A Facebook spokesperson told the BBC: "We're grateful that leaders in the civil rights community took the time to share candid, honest feedback with Mark and Sheryl [Sandberg, Facebook's COO].
"It is an important moment to listen, and we look forward to continuing these conversations."
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