We’re living through a global health pandemic and an insufficient government and corporate response that is causing people to lose their lives and loved ones. The hate and disinformation spread online around COVID-19 are putting even more lives in danger. Companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are hotspots for coronavirus opportunists to spread their dangerously misleading lies and fuel xenophobic and anti-Asian violence.

Asian Americans are being blamed for spreading COVID-19 and targeted, particularly those of us who are of East Asian descent. [1] Our community, including children and elders, are now victims of acid burns, stabbings, verbal assaults, and bullying. Asian Americans are experiencing over 100 hate crimes per day related to COVID-19.

Tell Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to immediately shut down hate and misinformation about COVID-19 on their platforms.

Since March 19, 2020, Asian Americans have suffered over 1,100 racist acts of verbal and physical assault. [2] People are afraid to leave their houses, knowing that even going grocery shopping or taking out the trash could put their lives in danger. While an Asian American family was shopping at Sam’s Club, three members, including two children aged 2 and 6, were violently stabbed in a COVID-19 hate crime. [3] An Asian woman in Brooklyn was taking out the trash outside her apartment building when a man poured acid all over her body before running off. [4]

The U.S. has a long history of white supremacy and imperialism in which Asian Americans have been blamed for spreading diseases, stealing jobs, and posing threats to national security because of what we look like and where our families came from. This racist fear is known as yellow peril. [5] [6] The skyrocketing levels of Anti-Asian violence is due to online hate spreading from this belief that Asians are the ‘other’ and can never be trusted.

With millions of people sheltering in place and dependent on social media for up-to-date, truthful information about how to keep themselves, their families and their communities safe, it is urgent that these companies crack down on the hate and disinformation spreading across their platforms.

Tell the platforms to stop the spread of hate and disinformation on COVID-19 now.

Petition Text

To Facebook, Twitter and YouTube:

Hate and disinformation about COVID-19 are spreading on your platforms and worsening the global pandemic. Lies, racist rhetoric and bigoted conspiracy theories from people including violent white supremacists, Fox News personalities and President Trump himself are endangering the lives of everyone — especially people of color and religious minorities in the midst of this public-health crisis.

During this urgent moment, you must invest more in people — not algorithms — to identify and remove harmful content and to equip moderators to do this work safely from home. With millions of people sheltering in place and dependent on social media for up-to-date, truthful information about how to keep themselves, their families and their communities safe, it is urgent that you stop hate and disinformation on your platforms.

Co-Sponsors

RAISE: Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories on the East Coast

[1] New York Times

[2] NBC Asian America

[3] Huffington Post

[4] BuzzFeed

[5] Asian American Writers Workshop

[6] Treating Yellow Peril: Resources to Address Coronavirus Racism