Zuckerberg to meet with civil rights leaders to discuss political ads

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will huddle with the Rev. Al Sharpton and other top civil rights leaders next week in California to discuss concerns about Facebook’s policies on political ads, Sharpton confirmed Thursday.

The meeting between Zuckerberg and top officials with the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and others will come about a month into a controversy over whether Facebook is enabling the spread of misinformation by not fact-checking or blocking ads with incorrect or misleading claims.

“Last week, I sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, requesting a face-to-face meeting with me and other national civil rights leaders to discuss Facebook’s policy to decline to fact-check the accuracy of politicians’ content on Facebook,” Sharpton said in a statement.

“I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately,” he added.

A coalition of leading civil rights groups penned a letter earlier this month requesting a meeting with Zuckerberg “to discuss our concerns as Civil Rights leaders regarding issues of election security and voter suppression tactics.”