More than two dozen U.N. human rights experts demanded that the CEOs of the world's biggest social media platforms "urgently address" the proliferation of online hate by overhauling their business models.
Alarmed at a sharp increase in the use of the racist “N” word on Twitter after its recent acquisition by multibillionaire Elon Musk, the experts said all the major social media corporations including Meta, Google and Apple must immediately show greater accountability for online hatred spewed at people of African descent.
"We call upon Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, and CEOs of other social media platforms to center human rights, racial justice, accountability, transparency, corporate social responsibility, and ethics in their business model," the 25 independent experts and investigators assigned to several working groups and themes for the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva said in a joint statement on Friday.
"We remind them that corporate accountability for racial justice and human rights is a core social responsibility," they said. "Respecting human rights is in the long-term interest of these companies and their shareholders."
Sharp increase in the use of “N” word on Twitter after its recent acquisition highlights urgent need for a deeper level of accountability from social media corporations over the expression of hatred towards people of #Africandescent - #WGEPAD https://t.co/Ot45qZMtRF #fightracism pic.twitter.com/k4hwaKIBHP
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) January 6, 2023
'Centered on human rights'
Such an approach reflects the principles of treaties such as the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The group of U.N. experts said that soon after Musk acquired Twitter, Rutgers University's Network Contagion Research Institute highlighted how the hateful and racist “N” word on the platform increased by almost 500% within a 12-hour period compared to the previous average.
Twitter blamed it on a trolling campaign but such hatred against people of African descent "is deeply concerning and merits an urgent response centered on human rights," they said.
The experts also pointed to a gap between what the companies say they will do and their actual policies and enforcement when it comes to approving inflammatory ads and allowing electoral disinformation and conspiracy theories to flourish, citing research by advocacy organizations Global Witness and SumOfUs that Facebook's owner, Meta, cannot block some ads.
