October 31, 2019
 
Senator Brian Schatz
722 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
 
Dear Senator Schatz:
 
Thank you for writing to share your concerns and recommendations around the upcoming
census.
 
As we announced in July, we are developing a plan to prevent the spread of misinformation
aimed at keeping people from participating in the 2020 census. We continue working closely
with the Census Bureau and other stakeholders to ensure we get the policy right. We
understand that you requested a response to your inquiry by October 31. In addition to
providing you this update, we commit to providing your office with more detailed information
in a briefing as soon as our policy has been finalized.
 
We know we have a responsibility to help protect the census from interference on our
platforms, which is why we can assure you that our policy will extend Facebook’s protections
against voter suppression to suppression related to participation in the census. We’ve already
assembled a team dedicated to protecting next year’s census and will be enforcing this
policy.
 
Thank you again for reaching out. We look forward to announcing our finalized policy soon.
 
Sincerely,
 

Kevin Martin
Vice President, U.S. Public Policy

 

Address:

575 7th Street NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC
20004