Facebook is facing criticism for sponsoring the annual gala dinner of the Federalist Society, the powerful rightwing legal group behind the nomination of the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The world’s largest social media company is listed as a “gold circle” sponsor of the 2019 National Lawyers Convention in Washington, and is featured in the guidebook app for the event, where Kavanaugh was scheduled as the keynote speaker on Thursday evening.
The Federalist Society has played a key role in the decades-long Republican strategy to pack US courts with conservatives, which has been advanced under Donald Trump’s administration. The group’s executive vice-president, Leonard Leo, advised the president on Kavanaugh’s controversial appointment.
Demand Justice, the not-for-profit group which aims to motivate progressives on issues related to the federal judiciary, released an advert calling on supporters to “tell Facebook: stop funding the fight to normalize Brett Kavanaugh”.
The event drew protests on Thursday evening, including a large video screen playing the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford, the California psychologist who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Kavanaugh’s appointment was subsequently confirmed despite Ford’s testimony.
Marchers gathered with signs amid chants of “I believe Anita Hill. I believe Dr Ford.”
Oh man. Anti-Kavanaugh protesters are shouting "I believe Dr. Ford! I believe Anita Hill!" right in the faces of Federalist Society members as they're stuck waiting in line for their gala to start. For who knows how long. #awkward pic.twitter.com/1J4rkC4nBF
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 14, 2019
This is not the first time Facebook has drawn scrutiny over Kavanaugh. The company’s head of global public policy, Joel Kaplan, was spotted sitting behind Kavanaugh during his 2018 Senate judiciary committee hearing.
“Facebook should not be sponsoring the rehabbing of Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation when Dr Blasey Ford remains unable to resume a normal life after bravely coming forward last year,” Katie O’Connor, the senior counsel for Demand Justice, told the Verge. “You can claim to respect survivors of sexual assault or you can pay for a celebration of Brett Kavanaugh, but you can’t do both.”
Kaplan’s attendence, the New York Times reported at the time, “prompted anger and shock among many Facebook employees. Kaplan later apologized in a note to Facebook staff, saying, ‘I recognize this moment is a deeply painful one – internally and externally.’”
Facebook’s sponsorship of the Federalist Society’s dinner, which was first reported by Popular Information, will now renew anxiety about a company which recently decided that it will not vet political advertising for accuracy in the run-up to the 2020 US elections.
Facebook’s fledgling news initiative recently ran into renewed controversy over ties with far-right organisations, just two weeks after the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, struggled to explain why ultra-conservative Breitbart News belongs on its list of “trusted” news sources.
The company was widely held to have hosted misinformation ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook has not revealed how much it has paid to sponsor the dinner. The company spokesman Andy Stone told Popular Information that Facebook supports a broad swath of organisations across the political spectrum. These include the American Constitution Society, the Federalist Society’s liberal counterpart.
Stone said “purposely” focusing on its support for one organization would serve to “distract from our lengthy track record of supporting groups from across the political spectrum”.