Jewish groups praise court ruling.

By Sharon Wrobel, The Algemeiner

A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled in favor of upholding an Arkansas law that forbids state agencies from contracting with companies that boycott Israel, on the grounds that it does not constitute an infringement of free speech.

“Today is a resounding victory for Arkansas’s anti-discrimination law and reinforces Arkansas’s relationship with our long-time ally, Israel,” said Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, whose office defended the state law, in a statement.

The 9-1 ruling by the full Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a February 2021 panel decision that the Arkansas anti-BDS law was unconstitutional.

Back in 2018, the Arkansas Times, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), filed a lawsuit after the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College withheld advertising business with the newspaper unless it signed a clause against boycotting Israel to conform with state law.

In the lawsuit, the Arkansas Times argued that the anti-BDS law passed in 2017, which requires public contracts to certify that contractors will not boycott Israel, violates the First Amendment by “placing an unconstitutional condition on the award of government contracts; and by compelling speech.”

Judge Jonathan Kobes wrote in the court’s opinion that the legislative motive for passing the 2017 law was “primarily economic.”

“It does not ban Arkansas Times from publicly criticizing Israel, or even protesting the statute itself,” Kobes argued. “It only prohibits economic decisions that discriminate against Israel. Because those commercial decisions are invisible to observers unless explained, they are not inherently expressive and do not implicate the First Amendment.”

Following the court’s ruling, Brian Hauss, staff attorney for the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said that the next steps were now being considered.

“The court’s conclusion that politically-motivated consumer boycotts are not protected by the First Amendment is wrong and departs from this nation’s longstanding traditions,” Hauss said in emailed comments. “It ignores the fact that this country was founded on a boycott of British goods and that boycotts have been a fundamental part of American political discourse ever since.”

Mark Stern, chief legal officer for the American Jewish Committee — which joined a number of Jewish and pro-Israel groups in filing briefs supporting the state’s position — lauded the court’s decision as “the first appellate test of laws that combat the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, whose primary aim is to eliminate the State of Israel.”

“As the court noted, Arkansas has broad power to regulate economic activity, and taking a position on a boycott does not inhibit free speech,” Stern commented in a statement.

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The audit recommends that Facebook build a “civil rights infrastructure” into every aspect of the company.

By Associated Press

A two-year audit of Facebook’s civil rights record found “serious setbacks” that have marred the social network’s progress on matters such as hate speech, misinformation and bias.

Facebook hired the audit’s leader, former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy, in May 2018 to assess its performance on vital social issues.

Its 100-page report released Wednesday outlines a “seesaw of progress and setbacks” at the company on everything from bias in Facebook’s algorithms to its content moderation, advertising practices and treatment of voter suppression.

The audit recommends that Facebook build a “civil rights infrastructure” into every aspect of the company, as well as a “stronger interpretation” of existing voter suppression policies and more concrete action on algorithmic bias. Those suggestions are not binding, and there is no formal system in place to hold Facebook accountable for any of the audit’s findings.

“While the audit process has been meaningful, and has led to some significant improvements in the platform, we have also watched the company make painful decisions over the last nine months with real world consequences that are serious setbacks for civil rights,” the audit report states.

Those include Facebook’s decision to exempt politicians from fact-checking.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cited a commitment to free speech as a reason for allowing such posts to remain on the platform, even though the company has rules in place against voter suppression it could have used to take down — or at least add warning labels to — Trump’s posts.

Last month, Facebook announced it would begin labeling rule-breaking posts — even from politicians — going forward. But it is not clear if Trump’s previous controversial posts would have gotten the alert. The problem, critics have long said, is not so much about Facebook’s rules as how it enforces them.

“When you elevate free expression as your highest value, other values take a back seat,” Murphy told The Associated Press. The politician exemption, she said, “elevates the speech of people who are already powerful and disadvantages people who are not.”

More than 900 companies have joined an advertising boycott of Facebook to protest its handling of hate speech and misinformation.

Civil rights leaders who met virtually with Zuckerberg and other Facebook leaders Tuesday expressed skepticism that recommendations from the audit would ever be implemented, noting that past suggestions in previous reports had gone overlooked.

“What we get is recommendations that they end up not implementing,” said Rashad Robinson, the president of Color for Change, one of several civil rights nonprofits leading an organized boycott of Facebook advertising.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said in a Facebook newsroom post that the company has a long way to go, but is making progress.

“This audit has been a deep analysis of how we can strengthen and advance civil rights at every level of our company — but it is the beginning of the journey, not the end,” she wrote.

“What has become increasingly clear is that we have a long way to go. As hard as it has been to have our shortcomings exposed by experts, it has undoubtedly been a really important process for our company.”

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