Just a few days ago I posted a diary in response to my grappling with the contrast of the message of Susan Sandberg's book, Lean In with the misogynistic content allowed on the Facebook site by the the company she helps lead.
I felt that Facebook content policies were actually holding back Sandberg's attempt and ability to move women forward by not taking some kind of action on at least the most obvious and dangerous pages and posters. Her silence on the matter, in my mind and in the minds of many others, made her appear complicit.
Get ready for the power of social media. This from Women, Action, & the Media just appeared in my Facebook feed (of all places!)
Today, in response to the efforts of Women, Action & the Media, the Everyday Sexism Project and author/activist Soraya Chemaly who organized a campaign asking Facebook to take action and end hate speech on their site, Facebook has released a statement of their commitment to update policies and practices in regards to hate speech.
Facebook has also invited Women, Action & the Media, The Everyday Sexism Project and members of our coalition to contribute to these efforts and be part of an ongoing conversation. As part of these efforts, we will work closely with Facebook on the issue of how Community Standards around hate speech are evaluated and to ensure best practices represent the interests of our coalition.
You can read the Women, Action, & Media statement
here and the entire Facebook statement of commitment
here.
As I said in my original diary on this topic, "At it's best, Facebook is part of a social media machine that is helping bring attention to important issues and growing and catalyzing critical movements locally and globally."
Powerful tool, this social media is. There's still lots of work to be done to make the internet a safer place, but it's good to see Facebook taking these steps toward progress. I'm sure Sheryl Sandberg played a key role in making this happen. I'm still grappling with some points in her book, but that's for another day and another diary.