Facebook, Amazon, Google and Twitter all use the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for “hate speech” or “hate groups,” while pretending to remain unbiased
EXCLUSIVE: FACEBOOK, AMAZON, GOOGLE AND TWITTER ALL WORK
WITH LEFT-WING SPLC
Amazon gave the SPLC the most direct authority while
pretending to remain unbiased
The SPLC has been plagued by inaccuracies
The Southern Poverty Law Center helps Facebook, Amazon,
Google and Twitter determine what organizations are “hate groups”
By Peter Hasson | Reporter 1:37 AM 06/07/2018
Four of the world’s biggest tech platforms have working
partnerships with a left-wing nonprofit that has a track record of inaccuracies
and routinely labels conservative organizations as “hate groups.”
Facebook, Amazon, Google and Twitter all work with or
consult the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in policing their platforms for
“hate speech” or “hate groups,” a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation
found.
The SPLC is on a list of “external experts and
organizations” that Facebook works with “to inform our hate speech policies,”
Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja told TheDCNF in an interview.
Facebook consults the outside organizations when
developing changes to hate speech policies, Budhraja said, noting that Facebook
representatives will typically hold between one and three meetings with the
groups.
Citing privacy concerns, the Facebook spokeswoman
declined to name all the outside groups working with Facebook, but confirmed
the SPLC’s participation.
Budhraja emphasized that Facebook’s definition of “hate
group” is distinct from the SPLC’s definition and said that Facebook consults
with groups across the political spectrum.
The SPLC accused Facebook in a May 8 article of not doing
enough to censor “anti-Muslim hate” on the platform. That article did not
disclose the SPLC’s working partnership with Facebook.
“We have our own process and our processes are different
and I think that’s why we get the criticism [from the SPLC], because
organizations that are hate organizations by their standards don’t match ours,”
Budhraja said.
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a process in place,
and that definitely doesn’t mean we want the platform to be a place for hate
but we aren’t going to map to the SPLC’s list or process,” she said.
Of the four companies, Amazon gives the SPLC the most
direct authority over its platform, TheDCNF found.
While Facebook emphasizes its independence from the SPLC,
Amazon does the opposite: Jeff Bezos’ company grants the SPLC broad policing
power over the Amazon Smile charitable program, while claiming to remain
unbiased.
“We remove organizations that the SPLC deems as
ineligible,” an Amazon spokeswoman told TheDCNF.
Amazon grants the SPLC that power “because we don’t want
to be biased whatsoever,” said the spokeswoman, who could not say whether
Amazon considers the SPLC to be unbiased.
The Smile program allows customers to identify a charity
to receive 0.5 percent of the proceeds from their purchases on Amazon.
Customers have given more than $8 million to charities through the program
since 2013, according to Amazon.
Only one participant in the program, the SPLC, gets to
determine which other groups are allowed to join it.
Christian legal groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom
— which recently successfully represented a Christian baker at the Supreme
Court — are barred from the Amazon Smile program, while openly anti-Semitic
groups remain, TheDCNF found in May.
One month later, the anti-Semitic groups — but not the
Alliance Defending Freedom — are still able to participate in the program.
Twitter lists the SPLC as a “safety partner” working with
Twitter to combat “hateful conduct and harassment.”
The platform also includes the Trust and Safety Council,
which “provides input on our safety products, policies, and programs,”
according to Twitter. Free speech advocates have criticized it as Orwellian.
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment on the SPLC
specifically, but said the company is “in regular contact with a wide range of
civil society organizations and [nongovernmental organizations].”
Google uses the SPLC to help police hate speech on
YouTube as part of YouTube’s “Trusted Flagger” program, The Daily Caller
reported in February, citing a source with knowledge of the agreement.
Following that report, the SPLC confirmed they’re policing hate speech on
YouTube.
The SPLC and other third-party groups in the “Trusted
Flagger” program work closely with YouTube’s employees to crack down on
extremist content in two ways, according to YouTube.
First, the flaggers are equipped with digital tools
allowing them to mass flag content for review by YouTube personnel. Second, the
groups act as guides to YouTube’s content monitors and engineers who design the
algorithms policing the video platform, but may lack the expertise needed to
tackle a given subject.
The SPLC is one of over 300 government agencies and
nongovernmental organizations in the YouTube program, the vast majority of
which remain hidden behind confidentiality agreements.
The SPLC has consistently courted controversy in
publishing lists of “extremists” and “hate groups.” The nonprofit has been
plagued by inaccuracies this year, retracting four articles in March and April
alone.
The well-funded nonprofit, which did not return a request
for comment, deleted three Russia-related articles in March after challenges to
their accuracy followed by legal threats.
All three articles focused on drawing conspiratorial
connections between anti-establishment American political figures and Russian
influence operations in the United States.
The SPLC removed a controversial “anti-Muslim extremist”
list in April, after British Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz threatened to sue
over his inclusion on the list. The SPLC had accused the supposed-extremists of
inciting anti-Muslim hate crimes. (RELATED: SPLC Pulls Controversial
‘Anti-Muslim Extremist’ List After Legal Threats)
Somali-born women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali also
made the list.
Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation who now
advocates against the practice, is an award-winning human rights activist. But
according to the SPLC’s since-deleted list, she was an “anti-Muslim extremist.”
Ali criticized Apple CEO Tim Cook in August 2017 for
donating to the SPLC, which she described as “an organization that has lost its
way, smearing people who are fighting for liberty and turning a blind eye to an
ideology and political movement that has much in common with Nazism.”
Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who is now the secretary
of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was surprised to find out
in February 2015 that the SPLC had placed him on an “extremist watch list” for
his conservative beliefs.
“When embracing traditional Christian values is equated
to hatred, we are approaching the stage where wrong is called right and right
is called wrong. It is important for us to once again advocate true tolerance,”
Carson said in response.
“That means being respectful of those with whom we
disagree and allowing people to live according to their values without
harassment,” he continued. “It is nothing but projectionism when some groups
label those who disagree with them as haters.”
Following a backlash, the SPLC apologized and removed him
from their list. Carson was on the list for four months before the SPLC removed
the “extremist” label.
Floyd Lee Corkins, who attempted a mass shooting at the
conservative Family Research Center in 2012, said he chose the organization for
his act of violence because the SPLC listed them as a “hate group.”
The SPLC has faced tough criticisms not just from
conservatives, but from establishment publications, as well.
“At a time when the line between ‘hate group’ and
mainstream politics is getting thinner and the need for productive civil
discourse is growing more serious, fanning liberal fears, while a great
opportunity for the SPLC, might be a problem for the nation,” Ben Schreckinger,
now with GQ, wrote in a June 2017 piece for Politico.
Washington Post Reporter Megan McArdle, while still
reporting for Bloomberg, similarly criticized the SPLC’s flimsy definition of
“hate group” in September 2017. Media
outlets who trust the SPLC’s labels, McArdle warned, “will discredit themselves
with conservative readers and donors.”
Comments
Post a Comment