Kim Kardashian is one of many celebrities who will join the #StopHateForprofit campaign, which involves her suspending her Facebook and Instagram accounts on Wednesday.
“I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation—created by groups to sow division and split America apart—only to take steps after people are killed,” she wrote on both platforms. “Misinformation shared on social media has a serious impact on our elections and undermines our democracy.”
Kim wrote that she’ll “freeze” her Instagram and Facebook accounts on Sept. 16 and pushed for others to also do the same, including the campaign’s website StopHateForProfit.org in her bio.
Kim’s reference to Facebook taking action only “after people are killed” seems to point to the fact that the company didn’t remove a militia group’s confrontational message to arm themselves during political unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin after police shot Jacob Blake. Mark Zuckerberg later admitted that Facebook “made an operational mistake” in failing to remove the “Kenosha Guard” group from the platform before two Kenosha protesters were shot and killed on Aug. 25 by 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.
NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League launched the Stop Hate for Profit campaign earlier this summer, with the goal to urge Facebook to be tougher on hate speech and misinformation.
“We are quickly approaching one of the most consequential elections in American history. Facebook’s unchecked and vague ‘changes’ are falling dangerously short of what is necessary to protect our democracy,” the coalition says on its site. “Facebook’s role in the Kenosha shooting—which was flagged as violating their policies hundreds of times—is a reminder that changing policies without changing enforcement means little. It reinforces the fact that lives are on the line.”
Other celebrities have also joined the campaign and posted the same image to their social media pages, including Demi Lovato, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Campbell, Rosario Dawson, and more.
