By Eden Stiffman, Image: Getty Images, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, December 15, 2021
In early October, officials at the Latino civil-rights advocacy group UnidosUS announced they would sever ties with Facebook.
This meant that the organization, formerly known as the National Council of La Raza, returned or refused $277,272 in grants from the social-media behemoth’s corporate office. UnidosUS was already aware of the harms Latinos face as a result of the platform’s policies and products, says Claudia Ruiz, a civil-rights analyst at the nonprofit, but the revelations from Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower, were the “line in the sand.”
Haugen’s testimony and reporting in the Wall Street Journal’s “Facebook Files” series detailed repeated incidents in which the company’s researchers and leaders identified the platform’s ill effects — such as Instagram’s negative impact on teen mental health and a Facebook algorithm change that elevated divisive and false content — but didn’t take meaningful steps to fix them.
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