FACEBOOK TAKES A REAL HIT

The country’s largest Latino civil rights organization on Friday severed its ties with Facebook, returning a recent grant from the social media giant.

UnidosUS, formerly known as the National Council of La Raza, said in a statement its decision came “amid revelations on the role that the platform has played in intentionally perpetuating products and policies that harm the Latino community and undermine democratic ideals.”

“This week’s revelations from Facebook’s own internal documents confirmed what we have long suspected: Facebook has engaged with us and the civil rights community in bad faith,” said UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía.

“We have called attention repeatedly to concerns about the negative impact that the proliferation of hate and misinformation on the platform has had on the Latino community. We know now that Facebook’s failure to adequately address those concerns was deliberate and resulted in even greater levels of hate and misinformation on the site,” she added.

The Hill reached out to Facebook for comment.

Facebook has faced an avalanche of negative press over the last few weeks, starting with a series of articles in The Wall Street Journal sharing internal company research that found the platform worsening body issues for teen girls, failing to handle drug cartels and providing preferential treatment to high profile users.

Their problems compounded when the source of that research, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, appeared in a high profile interview on “60 Minutes” and then testified before Congress.