Colorado Politics

Advocacy group asks Facebook to ban events calling for defiance of COVID restrictions

A women’s advocacy group has called on Facebook to ban all event listings that call for defiance of stay-at-home orders.

“We are health care providers, hospital personnel, food service workers, other essential workers, and their friends writing to implore you to implement measures that will restrict the use of your platform to spread and encourage protests against life-saving shelter-in-place orders,” UltraViolet wrote in a petition to Facebook’s leaders, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg.

Colorado’s stay-at-home order expired after April 26, but there are heavy restrictions and still some prohibitions on business operations. An event on May 3 organized by the Libertarian Party and a “Stand for Liberty” event from the Denver Tea Party are among the protests at the state Capitol still listed on Facebook. However, each event carries a disclaimer from Facebook at the top: “It’s up to all of us to slow the spread of COVID-19. Everyone, including young and healthy people, should avoid large gatherings during this time.”

The letter from UltraViolet admonishes Facebook that the company’s “refusal to take action makes it complicit in the outsized impact of COVID-19 on people of color and low-income communities, who are being infected at much higher rates.”

Hundreds gathered at the Colorado state Capitol to protest against the stay-at-home orders on Sunday, April 19, 2020.
JERILEE BENNETT THE GAZETTE
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