Soon after Joe Biden announced last year that he would pick a woman as his running mate, US Rep. Jackie Speier began warning Facebook executives: Female politicians receive the most vile online attacks, and the company’s filters were failing to stop them.
“We showed them 20 examples that were disgusting – and they were still up!” said Speier, a California Democrat, whose meetings included one with Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. Facebook’s response gave her little comfort. “Keep sending us these horrific examples,” she said executives told her, “and we’ll take them down.”