Coalition of Tech, Civil Rights and Gun Violence Prevention Organizations Call on Facebook to Deplatform Marjorie Taylor Greene

February 9, 2021

WASHINGTON -- A broad coalition of 16 organizations representing civil rights, tech, and gun violence prevention have released an open letter calling on Facebook to deplatform Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeatedly abusing and exploiting Facebook to spread and amplify hate speech, dangerous conspiracies, and express support for the death of her colleagues in Congress.

The letter is signed by Guns Down America, Color of Change, Friends of the Earth, UltraViolet Equality Labs, Free Press, Accountable Tech, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, MediaJustice, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Working Families Party, Common Cause, Media Matters, Avaaz, Kairos Action, and Muslim Advocates.

The letter was sent to Facebook Friday. The full text is below:

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg,

We, the undersigned organizations, call on Facebook to remove Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene’s campaign and congressional Facebook pages permanently.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a history of amplifying hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories on Facebook. A few examples:

● Taylor Greene has endorsed the conspiracy theories multiple times on Facebook claiming that the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings and the Las Vegas mass shooting were staged false flag events and didn’t actually happen. She also harassed one of her colleagues, Congresswoman Cori Bush in the hallways of Congress.

● Taylor Greene indicated support for executing Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats in Congress before running for Congress herself.

● Taylor Greene endorsed a conspiracy on Facebook claiming that “that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was videotaped murdering a child during a satanic ritual and then ordered a hit on a police officer to cover it up.”

● Taylor Greene penned a conspiracy theory on Facebook claiming “that a laser beam from space started deadly 2018 California wildfire.”

● Taylor Greene used Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s face in a fundraising video about attempts to expel her from Congress on her campaign Facebook page, despite the fact that Omar is not in House Leadership and does not bear responsibility for Taylor Greene’s removal.

These examples are just from what made the news last week. Rep. Taylor Greene also recorded hours of videos and shared them on Facebook where she expresses racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views.

Facebook has allowed Taylor Greene to exploit their platform to spread dangerous lies and grow her own popularity for years without taking action. As NBC News’ Ben Collins put it “[Taylor Greene] is a byproduct of the InfoWars-style far-right centipede content mill, where saying the most outrageous, vicious thing could boost you to Facebook superstardom. She was simply performing for that audience. Then it got real.”

But Taylor Greene’s extremism didn’t remain just on Facebook. Recently a video surfaced of Taylor Greene harassing Parkland survivor David Hogg , a teenager, as he walked to the Hill to meet with Senators about gun violence. She also encouraged her supporters to attend Trump’s rally in January that led to a violent attempted coup where Trump supporters occupied the Capitol building for several hours.

We demand Facebook remove Marjorie Taylor Greene’s campaign and congressional pages from the platform permanently and immediately. Rep. Taylor Greene has repeatedly abused and exploited Facebook to spread and amplify hate speech, dangerous conspiracies, and express support for the death of her colleagues in Congress. Her rhetoric has helped incite a

violent attempted coup on the United States of America, and will continue to incite violence and harm against others. Facebook must treat all users equally and apply its incitement policies equally to all users. Facebook must take action against Rep. Taylor Greene as part of a broader effort to protect the majority of its users from hate harassment and harm online.

Signed,

Guns Down America

Color of Change

Friends of the Earth

UltraViolet

Equality Labs

Free Press

Accountable Tech

Global Project Against Hate and Extremism

MediaJustice

National Hispanic Media Coalition

Working Families Party

Common Cause

Media Matters

Avaaz

Kairos Action

Muslim Advocates