Facebook appoints a vice president of civil rights

To improve handling civil rights issues amid a time when the company faces deeper scrutiny over its handling of racism, violent rhetoric, and misinformation, Facebook has hired a vice president of civil rights.

Roy Austin Jr. who is a long-time civil rights attorney and advocate will set up Facebook's civil rights organization and become a deputy general counsel, according to Engadget.

The hiring decision came after pro-Trump riots on Capitol Hill. 

The tech company suspended President Donald Trump's account for an indefinite period after he failed to condemn the mob.

Roy Austin previously worked in the Obama administration and co-authored a report on big data and civil rights.

Delighted to join Facebook at a crucial moment for civil rights both nationally and globally, he said, "Technology plays a role in nearly every part of our lives, and it's important that it be used to overcome the historic discrimination and hate which so many underrepresented groups have faced, rather than to exacerbate it."

Facebook faced a major advertising boycott last summer which was organized by civil rights groups in response to what they described as Facebook's "long history of allowing racist, violent and verifiably false content to run rampant on its platform." 

Around the same time, Facebook pledged to hire a civil rights leader and to place employees with civil rights expertise in core teams.

Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote that while the company had made progress on those fronts, it still had "a long way to go" after it failing an audit over such matters.