January 20, 2023


Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO
Meta
1 Hacker Way
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Delivered electronically


Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:

On behalf of Change the Terms, a coalition of more than five dozen civil rights, human rights,
tech policy and consumer protection organizations, we urge you to permanently instate Meta’s
ban on former President Donald Trump.

The findings of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee to Investigate the January
6th Attack on the United States Capitol, in its draft report, “Social Media & the January 6th
Attack on the U.S. Capitol” merit your scrutiny as you consider whether to reinstate President
Trump’s Facebook account. In particular, the committee observed that although President Trump
could soon return to social media, “the risk of violence has not abated.”

The Select Committee draft report found that President Trump’s supporters used Facebook to
closely track “his claims about a stolen election and subsequently his calls to descend on D.C. to
protest the Joint Session of Congress on January 6th, 2021.” It further identified that Facebook’s
“delayed response to the rise of far-right extremism—and President Trump’s incitement of his
supporters—helped to facilitate the attack on January 6th.”

For years, the Change the Terms coalition has advocated for Meta to hold powerful world leaders
like President Trump to the same content moderation standards as the rest of us. Yet as the Select
Committee draft report reveals, “[f]or at least two years before the election, Facebook executives
intervened to make exceptions to their own policies for prominent right-wing partisans on their
platform, including President Trump.” Indeed, you acknowledged these policy exceptions in
your January 7, 2021 post decrying President Trump’s use of Meta “to incite violent insurrection
against a democratically elected government.” We believe these exceptions are misguided,
allowing the rich, famous and powerful among us to abuse their positions of power to exploit and
harm others.

President Trump repeatedly violated Meta’s rules. He used Facebook to spread hate and racism
against people of color, targeted Black women and women of color politicians, spread misogyny
and white supremacy, used your advertising platform to target xenophobic campaign ads to
potential voters, repeatedly spread lies about the integrity of our electoral process to undermine
our democracy, and used your platform to incite a violent insurrection. Given his recent posts on
Truth Social and other public statements in recent months, he has only doubled down on his
dangerous flirtation with authoritarianism and political violence. His return would surely
embolden a base of existing supporters, who believe that such violence is justified if it means
returning Trump to power.

On January 6, 2021, you might have claimed ignorance on the extent of the harm posed by
President Trump’s use of Meta’s platforms. Today such a claim would be a reckless abdication of
your responsibility to protect the safety of the larger Meta community and the health of U.S.
democracy. We implore you to do the right thing.


Sincerely,

Jessica J. González, co-chair
Heidi Beirich, co-chair
Adam Conner, co-chair

On behalf of Change the Terms