In its inception, NHMC was founded to combat hate targeting Latinx over the airwaves. Today, so much organized hate and extremism lives online. In honoring our original mission, NHMC is deeply devoted to eliminating hate online and holding social media and video-sharing platforms accountable for their role in enabling white supremacy.
On January 6, 2021, we saw the most explicit display yet of how inaction by social media and video-sharing platforms leads to violent, deliberate attacks on our democracy. However, the attack on the Capitol was not the first time we’ve seen this happen. The El Paso Massacre in 2019, the Christchurch Massacre in 2019, the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in 2016, and so many other mass murder, violent events can be traced back to the radicalization and publication of white supremacist and extremist ideologies. Time and time again, NHMC has warned: hate online manifests into hate and violence in real life.
Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube must be held accountable for their continued enablement in the spread of hate, harassment, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. Our lives are at stake, and we cannot subject our communities to harm done in the name of executive privilege. In particular, social media platforms must be liable for the harm they cause and should not be able to hide behind liability shields in court when their actions lead to clear, tangible harm offline.
SLDC sends letter in support of Senator Luján’s Language-Inclusive Support and Transparency for Online Services (LISTOS) Act
SLDC meets with Congressman Maxwell Frost’s office to discuss the importance of regulating Spanish-language disinformation
SLDC participates in a roundtable conversation with Chair Khan of the FTC and Director Chopra of CFPB, and inquires about how the FTC plans to regulate non-English-language ads and scams
SLDC sends letter to Meta, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat outlining the dangers of Spanish-language disinformation and urging them to enact robust civic integrity policies, and enhance resources to ensure meaningful enforcement of policies ahead of the 2022 midterm elections
NHMC and Partner Organizations: Letter To Mark Zuckerberg Regarding Spanish Language Disinformation
NHMC Panel Series Part 2: What Facebook Exposure Means for Latinx Part II
NHMC Panel Series Part 1: What Facebook Exposure Means for Latinx
NHMC releases statement: Insider’s Testimony Exposes Facebook’s Lies!
LULAC's A Brighter Tomorrow: Remembering the Victims of the El Paso Massacre & Addressing Disinformation through Social Media
Statement: NHMC remembers El Paso
NHMC releases El Paso statement https://www.nhmc.org/two-years-since-the-massacre-in-el-paso-we-must-combat-domestic-extremism-online-hate-and-disinformation/
NHMC, Free Press, CAP, and other advocacy leaders held a meeting with Roy Austin, VP of Civil Rights; Cynthia Deitle, Director and Associate Counsel, Civil Rights; Abigail Sooy, Director, Community Operations and Media Digital Rights Operations, Trust & Safety; Ruchika Hodel, Program and Strategy Lead; Justine Isola, FB Head of Misinformation Policy; Ulrick Casseus, Public Policy Manager, Content Policy, regarding the #YaBasta Demands and slides of posts that still remain up despite sharing our concerns in December.
Highlights include:
U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and U.S. Representative Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) led 23 of their colleagues in letters to tech CEOs raising the alarm over the increasing rate of Spanish and other non-English language disinformation across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Nextdoor. https://www.lujan.senate.gov/press-releases/lujan-klobuchar-cardenas-lead-colleagues-urging-tech-ceos-to-combat-spanish-language-disinformation/
Spanish Language Disinformation coalition continues to convene. Prepares for El Paso massacre remembrance event.
NHMC OpEd: California must stand up to big tech and tackle disinformation crisis hurting Latinos most. https://www.nhmc.org/op-ed-in-the-sacramento-bee/
NHMC STATEMENT: Facebook Two Year Trump Ban Statement https://www.nhmc.org/facebooks-two-year-ban-opens-the-door-for-future-hate-targeting-latinos/
We wrote a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee outlining our struggle with Facebook’s inaction, which was introduced to the record by Congressman Tony Cárdenas at the hearing entitled "Disinformation Nation: Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” on March 25, 2021 at 12:00PM ET.
NHMC, along with the Real Facebook Oversight Board, Free Press, and the Center for American Progress, held a press conference on March 16, 2021 to demand Facebook take action to stop the Spanish-language crisis happening on its platform. We released our Spanish Language Disinformation Action Plan, featuring transparency and accountability demands for Facebook to take immediately.
NHMC and coalition partners received a letter from Facebook Vice President for U.S. Policy, Kevin Martin, in response to your letter of November 19th raising concerns pertaining to content on the platform and the threat of misinformation in Spanish language
Since then, NHMC has requested a follow up meeting.
NHMC, Free Press, CAP and other advocacy leaders held a meeting with Lindsay Elin, Director of External Affairs; Aaron Berman, Product Policy Manager, Misinformation in Content Distribution & Algorithm Policy Team; and Neil Potts, Director, Content Policy Team at Facebook, regarding this issue with a set of slides showing translation issues and content that is intended to incite violence and remained up despite repeated requests to remove the content, and additionally remove the account(s).
The Hill: Tech Forms fall short of misinformation targeting Latino voters
Press release from NHMC, Free Press and CAP
19 Latino and non Latino advocacy groups signed on to NHMC led letter to Zuckerberg highlighting the company’s inaction and enabling the targeting of the Latinx community users with disinformation
NHMC Letter to Facebook regarding their lack of policy enforcement against hate speech, public event pages to calls to arms after the Kenosha shooting, accountability in monitoring and removing hateful posts, banning all hate groups, anti-Muslim hate speech coming from head of Facebook Public Policy in India, and demanding the inclusion of Latinx in C-Suite and Board Member positions in Facebook.
