Technology giants including Microsoft Corp., Instagram and Facebook parent Meta Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, and Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch will announce new actions to combat hate crimes and racially-motivated violence at a summit hosted by President Joe Biden at the White House.
(Bloomberg) — Technology giants including Microsoft Corp., Instagram and Facebook parent Meta Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, and Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch will announce new actions to combat hate crimes and racially-motivated violence at a summit hosted by President Joe Biden at the White House.
The companies’ new efforts will be unveiled alongside a package of federal initiatives designed to address hate-fueled violence in the wake of a wave of high-profile violent episodes singling out racial and ethnic minorities.
The firms have come under increasing pressure to better police their platforms after repeated episodes in which violent criminals have been found to have used social media for harassment or bigoted speech.
On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation requiring social media companies to post their policies regarding hate speech, disinformation, and harassment. Former and current social media executives also testified Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee about their efforts to rein in extremism and misinformation.
The White House, which previewed the announcements in a fact sheet released Thursday morning, did not detail the new steps the technology companies plan to take. But a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told reporters the announcements would come alongside the additional steps by the Biden administration intended to address a rise in hate-inspired crime.
That includes funding from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education for state and local programs designed to strengthen initiatives to confront bullying and harassment. The administration will also provide grants to universities and colleges to help them recover from hate-fueled incidents — including a series of bomb threats made in recent months at historically Black colleges and universities.
A bipartisan group of former White House aides are also starting a new group called Dignity.us that will attempt to combat violence that arises from hatred. The effort will be supported by the presidential centers or foundations of former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Gerald Ford.
The White House announced plans for the summit earlier this year in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ten Black people were killed, and the White teenager charged in the attack allegedly wrote a manifesto espousing white supremacist ideas.
Participants at the summit include a bipartisan panel of mayors, civil rights and law enforcement leaders, and a former white supremacist who will discuss his exit from an extremist group.
The summit also comes as Biden has increasingly sought to frame the midterm elections as a “battle for the soul of the nation,” echoing the slogan of his presidential campaign.
The president and his aides have heightened criticism of former President Donald Trump and his supporters regarding denial over the outcome of the 2020 election and restrictions on abortion rights, while Republican lawmakers have sought to focus the fight for control of Congress on the president’s economic record and an uptick in urban crime following the coronavirus pandemic.
White House officials insisted Thursday’s summit was intended as an apolitical effort to unite Americans of a variety of political beliefs, races, and religions behind the effort and said Biden did not intend to rehash his criticism of the former president.
“The summit will include a bipartisan group of federal, state, and local officials, civil rights groups, faith and community leaders, technology and business leaders, law enforcement officials, former members of violent hate groups who now work to prevent violence, gun violence prevention leaders, media representatives, and cultural figures,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
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