Block Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency, Libra

Facebook just paid a record-breaking $5 billion fine for violating people's privacy – the result of an investigation that showed Facebook allowed the right-wing firm Cambridge Analytica access to 50 million social media profiles that helped them sway the election to Trump.1

But Facebook is already dreaming of an even scarier idea: setting up its own global currency. Facebook proposed creating an online "cryptocurrency," like the more-famous Bitcoin, called Libra. Libra would be an easy tool for tax evasion and money laundering in the hands of out-of-control corporations.2

Last week, Democrats slammed Libra during congressional hearings with Facebook's cryptocurrency chief, and Rep. Maxine Waters is threatening to subpoena Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.3 Progressive champions are calling for a moratorium on Facebook's development of its own money, and we need to help them build support in Congress.

Tell Congress: We can't trust Facebook. Stop the Libra project!

Facebook routinely violates consumer privacy. It swallowed up competitors and built a near-inescapable monopoly. It lied to advertisers about video metrics, lied to Congress in testimony and lied about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook created a safe haven for white nationalism, right-wing hatred, racism, misogyny, ethnic supremacism and fake news that fosters violence worldwide. And now, in the words of Sen. Sherrod Brown, it wants to create its "own bank and [its] own for-profit version of the Federal Reserve for the world." 4,5

Facebook's Libra is a horrible idea that would: 6

• Centralize corporate control by giving Facebook more power, undermining sovereign states that create their own currency and give the unelected board of a non-profit in Switzerland controlled by corporate interests the ability to distort global currencies or undermine governments at will.
• Promote tax dodging and money laundering by making it easier for people to hide their money in a new network with instant global reach.
• Erode freedom with no clear limits on how Facebook could use data on Libra purchases, bake racist discrimination into its algorithms, change the rules in the future or demand employees take payment in currency it controls.

References:

1. Tony Romm, "Facebook will have to pay a record-breaking fine for violating users’ privacy. But the FTC wanted more." The Washington Post, July 22, 2019.
2. Public Citizen et. al., "Open Letter Calling for Libra Moratorium," July 2, 2019.
3. Renae Merle, "‘Arrogance,’ ‘a ploy,’ ‘bold’: Here’s what officials are saying about Facebook’s Libra," The Washington Post, July 19, 2019.
4. Romm, "Facebook will have to pay a record-breaking fine for violating users’ privacy. But the FTC wanted more."
5. Merle, "‘Arrogance,’ ‘a ploy,’ ‘bold’: Here’s what officials are saying about Facebook’s Libra."
6. Public Citizen et. al., "Open Letter Calling for Libra Moratorium."

Read more and sign petition https://act.credoaction.com/sign/libra

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