Kim Kardashian West, Demi Lovato, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry and others will be staying off Facebook and Instagram Wednesday, September 16 as part of a coordinated week-long campaign about misinformation on the platform.
“I love that I can connect directly with you through Instagram and Facebook, but I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation - created by groups to sow division and split America apart – only to take steps after people are killed,” Kardashian posted to Facebook Tuesday afternoon, with an orange and white image reading “stop hate" and the #StopHateforProfit tag.
“Misinformation shared on social media has a serious impact on our elections and undermines our democracy,” she continued, then invited followers to join her.
Similar posts appeared Tuesday afternoon on social media accounts of other celebrities and non-celebrities.
The week of action, highlighted by a “freeze” on posts Wednesday, is the latest effort by the Stop Hate for Profit coalition, led by nine civil rights and advocacy organizations: ADL (Anti-Defamation League), Color of Change, Common Sense, Free Press, LULAC, Mozilla, NAACP, National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and Sleeping Giants.
The action comes two weeks after the death of two protestors at a Black Lives Matter rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Militia groups, including the Kenosha Guard, used Facebook to call for their followers to incite violence at the time, according to the coalition.
“Our organizations as well as other experts have been warning Facebook for years about the problem of dangerous, potentially violent groups and individuals using Facebook. But time and time again they’ve failed to listen,” a statement from the coalition reads.
The campaign’s first action this summer was to call on companies to pause advertising on Facebook in the month of July to protest Facebook’s policies and practices. Over 1,200 companies stepped up, including Unilever, Verizon, Adidas, Ford, Patagonia and others.
Throughout July, Facebook publicly postedactions they have or are taking to address recommendations outlined by the Stop Hate for Profit organizers.
Now, participants will “freeze” their Instagram and Facebook accounts for one day on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
Throughout the week, participants are asked to post messages reinforcing StopHateforProfit’s campaign.
StopHateforProfit.org is calling on Facebook to make the following changes ahead of the November 3 election:
Racism, Violence and Hate
- Take down groups focused on white supremacy, militia, hate, and violent conspiracies
- Increase resources focused on monitoring groups for hate speech and violence
- Change platform policy to forbid any event page with a call to arms, as recommended by Change the Terms
- Commit 5% of their annual revenue to an independently administered fund to support initiatives, academics and organizations doing the work to fight against racism, hate and division caused by Facebook’s inaction
Election Protection and Misinformation
- Ensure accuracy in political and voting matters by eliminating the politician exemption
- Remove misinformation related to voting that has been debunked by credible fact checkers
- Prohibit calls to violence by politicians in any format
