Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit Introduction by Laura W. Murphy This report marks the end of a two-year audit process that started in May of 2018 and was led by me and supported by Megan Cacace, a partner at the civil rights law firm Relman Colfax (along with a team from Relman Colfax). The report is cumulative, building on two previous updates that were published in December 2018 and June 2019. The Audit began at the behest of civil rights organizations and members of Congress, who recognized the need to make sure important civil rights laws and principles are respected, embraced, and robustly incorporated into the work at Facebook. Civil rights groups have been central to the process, engaging tirelessly and consistently in the Audit effort. We interviewed and solicited input from over 100 civil rights and social justice organizations, hundreds of advocates and several members of Congress. These groups championed the Audit as a collaborative and less adversarial mechanism for effecting systemic change at Facebook. They pointed out that civil rights challenges emerge in almost every aspect of the company, from its products to its Community Standards and enforcement practices. At the outset, the groups identified the topics on which they wanted Facebook’s greater focus, including voter suppression and voter information, building a civil rights accountability infrastructure, content moderation and enforcement (including hate speech and harassment), advertising targeting and practices, diversity and inclusion, fairness in algorithms and the civil rights implications of privacy practices. All of those topics are addressed in this final report — with varying degrees of depth because of time limitations — in addition to new topics we’ve added to the scope, including COVID-19 and the 2020 census. The Civil Rights Audit was not limited to racial justice issues. Civil rights are the rights of individuals to be free from unfair treatment or discrimination in the areas of education, employment, housing, credit, voting, public accommodations, and more — based on certain legally-protected characteristics identified in a variety of state and federal laws. Those protected classes include race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, national origin, religion, and age, among other characteristics. Our work applies to all of those groups. Our work also applies to every user of Facebook who will benefit from a platform that reduces discrimination, builds inclusion and tamps down on hate speech activity. When I first started on this project, there was no commitment to publish reports and top management was not actively engaged. With pressure from advocates, that changed. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg deserves kudos for taking over as the point person for this work and developing important relationships with civil rights leaders. She also enlisted many other senior executives in this work, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Throughout the Audit process, Facebook had dozens of interactions with a broad array of civil rights leaders, resulting in more face-to-face contact with Facebook executives than ever before. This Audit enabled groundbreaking convenings with civil right leaders at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, CA, in Atlanta, GA and in Washington, DC. Many Facebook staff supported the work of Megan Cacace and myself (the Auditors). The Auditors were assigned a three-person full-time program management team, a partially dedicated team of 15+ employees across product, 5