Facebook faces public backlash and lawmaker scrutiny over discriminatory moderation practices.

In 2021 Facebook came under fire for upholding its ostensibly neutral, race-blind content moderation practices and refusing to fix its biased algorithms, which the company’s own researchers had found allowed hate speech to run rampant on its platform while disproportionately censoring Black users and people from marginalized groups. Their findings were consistent with criticisms civil rights groups had directed at Facebook for years, including ACLU of Northern California, who in 2020 urged Facebook to address discrimination on its platform following the erroneous takedowns of content shared by Black activists and LGBTQ artists. Facebook has promised to examine how its platform treats people differently based on race, but the consequences of the company downplaying the concerns of impacted users for years have already materialized – many Black users have left the platform, while Facebook’s practices remain the subject of intense public scrutiny, damning allegations from whistleblowers, and Congressional hearings.