Donald M. Payne: “Countries like Russia have used social media to fuel racial tensions in America's communities, and White supremacists…”

“Countries like Russia have used social media to fuel racial tensions in America's communities, and White supremacists have used social media to organize their hate. We must not be afraid to ask: What role has Facebook played in fueling negrophobia in America? Facebook was born in an age of diversity, but it was not born with a commitment to diversity. Only 3 in every 100 Facebook employees are African American. The company has no Black executives, and it has no Black board members. The company's global director of diversity has said that hiring women and people of color is complicated. Its chief executive officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has promised that Facebook would hire a Black board member sometime soon. Why has it taken so long? Why have minority voices been left out of the essential media development? Has Facebook's failure to value minority voices inside the company made Facebook an online megaphone for racist voices outside the company? Facebook's algorithms have the power to affect the way Americans think about Black people, for better or worse. When Facebook accepts money from foreign actors who want to exploit racial tensions in the United States, Facebook perpetuates negrophobia. By the same token, Facebook's algorithms could weaken negrophobia by enhancing positive messages that challenge people to reexamine and resist discriminatory responses, but that will require Facebook to fully commit to diversity right now, not sometime in the future. Mr.…”