Mark Zuckerberg asked to stop Facebook from being used to spread racism, hatred and incite violence

Facebook CEO and chairman Mark Zuckerberg arrives at the Lima Convention Centre to speak at a session of the APEC CEO Summit, part of the broader Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Lima on November 19, 2016. [Courtesy]

An anti-racist and pro-immigration movement, Cara Italia, has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to stop the social media platform from being used to spread racism and hate.

In a video message to Mr Zuckerberg (pictured), the movement’s founder and national coordinator Stephen Ogongo pointed out that the Facebook commenting policy was not effective in fighting racism and hate speech. “It is evident that Facebook is not doing enough to prevent racial comments posted online,” he says. 

Mr Ogongo has asked the management of the social media giant to close down Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's Facebook page as well as that of his party - the League - for harbouring racists, sexists and people who openly engage in hate speech.

According to Ogongo, most members of Cara Italia have been reporting abusive comments on these pages, but Facebook continuously says the comments reported as abusive do not violate its community standards.

“Why is Facebook defending such racist and offensive comments?” Ogongo asked. He also accused Salvini of failing to moderate the racist, sexist, and other offensive comments on his Facebook pages, noting that the Deputy PM never deleted such comments. "Neither does he appeal to his supporters to avoid making racist comments," Ogongo said.