If you haven't logged off of Facebook yet today, the NAACP would like you to do so _ now.
The organization took to its website and Twitter page to call for everyone to boycott not just Facebook, but also Instagram and the WhatsApp messaging platform, after a report from a Senate committee on Monday said that Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) used the social media outlets to manipulate and influence black voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The NAACP said that in addition to calling for a daylong boycott of Facebook and its affiliates, it was returning a donation for an undisclosed amount that it received from Facebook. In a statement, the NAACP said it was "reprehensible" how Facebook was used "for propaganda promoting disingenuous portrayals of the African American community."
The latest report on the IRA's involvement in the 2016 election came from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The committee provided information to two research groups that then reported their findings to the Senate committee.
"This newly released data demonstrates how aggressively Russia sought to divide Americans by race, religion and ideology, and how the IRA actively worked to erode trust in our democratic institutions," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the committee chairman. "Most troublingly, it shows that these activities have not stopped."
