Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s two top executives, met with civil rights groups on Tuesday in an attempt to mollify them over how the social network treats hate speech on its site... For more than an hour over Zoom, the duo, along with other Facebook executives, discussed the company’s handling of hate speech with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Color of Change and other groups. Those organizations have recently helped push hundreds of companies, such as Unilever and Best Buy, to pause their advertising on Facebook to protest its handling of toxic speech and misinformation.

... The groups said they discussed about 10 demands with Facebook’s leaders... [including] hiring a top executive with a civil rights background, submitting to regular independent audits and updating its community standards, according to a statementfrom the Free Press advocacy group... Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg agreed to hire a civil rights position, but they did not come to a resolution on most other requests, representatives of the groups said. Instead, they said, the Facebook executives reverted to “spin” and firing up its “powerful P.R. machine.”... Facebook said in a statement that the groups “want Facebook to be free of hate speech and so do we.” It reiterated it was taking steps to “keep hate off of our platform” and added, “We know we will be judged by our actions not by our words and are grateful to these groups and many others for their continued engagement.”