About 100 female lawmakers from across the world have sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg demanding that the company do a better job combating misogyny on its platform, especially hateful content directed at female public figures.
The letter, which was signed by prominent US politicians including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, and Reps. Jackie Speier, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar, comes as Facebook faces widespread criticism from civil rights groups and politicians over its handling of hateful content and misinformation.
“[M]uch of the most hateful content directed at women on Facebook is amplified by your algorithms which reward extreme and dangerous points of view with greater reach and visibility creating a fertile breeding ground for bias to grow,” the lawmakers write in the letter, which was announced at a forum about misogyny and social media at George Washington University on August 6.