Advocacy groups target Facebook employees in push to keep Trump off platform

Advocacy groups are targeting Facebook’s employees with an ad campaign urging the platform to keep former President Trump banned permanently. 

More than 30 advocacy groups ran a full page ad in the San Jose Mercury News on Thursday slamming the platform’s announcement last week that it would keep Trump’s suspension in place until at least 2023, leaving open the possibility of his return ahead of the 2024 election.

The ad featured a letter signed by the groups, including Media Matters for America, Accountable Tech, the Anti-Defamation League, Avaaz and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling it “unconscionable” to even consider giving Trump a chance to return. 

“You would be handing him the megaphone through which he incited an insurrection — all without implementing meaningful design or enforcement changes to prevent the worst from happening again,” the letter states. 

The newspaper ad is part of a six-figure ad campaign launched by Media Matters and Accountable Tech that also includes digital ads, as well as billboard and truck banners near Facebook’s corporate offices.