These demands follow the release of a report revealing how hate speech and harassment have escalated on Facebook and Instagram since Meta weakened protections.
Arisha Hatch, the interim executive director of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, condemned the verdict as “a stain on a criminal justice system that for decades has failed to hold accountable abusers” and called it “an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.”
But Shaunna Thomas, executive director of women’s rights group UltraViolet, said she would be surprised if many of these organizations endorsed in the primary. UltraViolet did not endorse in 2016, and Thomas said that this year—with so many strong women candidates—there is little incentive for any women’s group to do so.
“There is all the incentive in the world for us to create the conditions for all of these candidates to continue to vie for women as a constituency and to center their needs,” she said. “I’d be shocked if women’s groups jumped in to endorse a bunch of different candidates… if for no other reason than because we need all of them to center women.”
“It’s past time for us to listen to and trust Black women and girls and hold those who abuse them accountable.” —Women’s rights organization Ultraviolet, via Twitter.
“Under Acosta’s leadership, a sexual predator and his accomplices walked away with a meager slap on the wrist,” said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy organization, in a statement.