For several years, Facebook has been unabashedly censoring and restricting the voices of people of color and individuals from the trans community. That censorship has taken on many forms:

1. POC activists having posts removed for calling out racism
   
2. Trans and GNC individuals STILL being forced to use their 'dead name' or risk having their accounts banned
3. Black and Brown individuals receiving lengthy bans for questionable offenses and/or unspecified violations of Facebook's "community standards"
4. The closing of Korrine Gaines' Facebook account moments before her murder by Baltimore County Police
5. Allowing anti-Black racism and racist sentiment to saturate comment sections, as well as inboxes of people of color
6. Banning prominent activists like Leslie Mac and Shaun King (who was once a guest speaker at Facebook HQ) for calling out white supremacy.
7. Allowing threats of violence and depictions of violence against GNC individuals and POC to remain published and unmoderated
8. Removing posts that are maliciously targeted and flagged by white supremacist groups and/or law enforcement agencies

At best, Facebook is arbitrarily applying its community standards unequally across its user base. At worst, Facebook is intentionally imposing vague community standards on Black and trans activists to silence our voices; frequently at the behest of law enforcement.

We, the undersigned, demand that Facebook immediately end the practices listed above and implement a fair, unbiased, and nuanced system for moderating accounts and removing content. This system should take into consideration global and national power structures and social dynamics related to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism. We also demand transparency and SPECIFIC CITATION disclosing what community standards were alleged to have been violated before removing content and/or banning users; as well as a clear and expedient review process for challenging alleged violations. Additionally, we demand diverse oversight of the implementation of this system and the criteria used to generate and regulate community standards.

We’re addressing this petition to the five white cisgender individuals currently serving as top level Facebook executives: Mark Zuckerberg (CEO), Sheryl Sandberg (COO), Mike Schroepfer (CTO), David Wehner (CFO), and Chris Cox (CPO).

#BlackLivesMatter #TransLivesMatter #WheresTheJustice #UnbanALLDaHomies

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POC = People Of Color
Trans = Transgender
GNC = Gender Non-Conforming