FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Troll Army of Fake Mark Zuckerbergs March on the Capitol Lawn Ahead of Senate Hearing
Ahead of Mark Zuckerberg's Senate hearing today, advocacy group, Avaaz, took an army of 100 life-sized Zuckerberg cutouts wearing 'Fix Fakebook' t-shirts to the Capitol lawn. After battling disinformation campaigns worldwide, Avaaz has consulted with governments in 6 countries, social media executives and polled its global membership.
It’s calling on Mark Zuckerberg, Internet CEOs and government regulators to fight disinformation campaigns threatening our democracies. Over 750,000 people have signed an open letter over the last week, which will appear in front page ads in Politico and Washington Post this Tuesday and Wednesday in reply to Mark Zuckerberg's apology.
“Avaaz has set up a fake army of Mark Zuckerbergs to flood the US capitol just as fake news and fake profiles have flooded our democracies” says Nell Greenberg, Campaign director at Avaaz. “As Zuckerberg gets ready to testify before the Senate, hundreds of thousands of people are calling on him to delete “Fakebook” by banning all fake accounts. They banned thousands in France and Germany to protect democracy, it’s time to extend the same protections to the US and worldwide.”
The glaring gaps in Zuckerberg's testimony include:
Ban the Bots - Facebook has banned tens of thousands of fake accounts to protect French and German democracies. Yet currently, there is no commitment to extend that protection to millions of fake accounts. It is critical that Zuckerberg delete “Fakebook” by banning ALL fake or imposter user accounts.
Alert the Public - Hundreds of millions of people have been misled by disinformation campaigns on Facebook. Yet they have not committed to mitigating the damage by prominently notifying individual users each and every time they have viewed (not just shared, but viewed) fake, malicious, or disinformation campaign content.
Fund the Fact Checkers - While artificial intelligence is crucial, any corrective system will need to rely on human fact checkers. Facebook has taken steps in only 6 countries, but they have not committed to help rapidly stand up a new and independent industry of fact-checkers that is fully multilingual, global and capable of the breadth, volume and speed required to stem the flow of lies.
Tell the Truth - Facebook needs to commit to full disclosure of the extent of fake users, fake activity, and disinformation campaigns on its platform, and support independent audits to assess them.
CONTACTS
Julie Deruy +33 6 76 47 72 59, julie@avaaz.org
Will Davies 646-628-1210, will@avaaz.org
Images, statements, quotes and other relevant information are available, please follow us on Twitter and email us at media@avaaz.org
About Avaaz:
Just weeks ago, Avaaz put out 7,000 shoes on the Capital lawn, representing child victims of gun violence to call for greater gun controls. The group empowers millions of people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change.
