By Katie Campione
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Michael B. Jordan told the men known as the Central Park Five Friday that he cannot watch footage of the new series "When They See Us" without getting emotional and feeling like as a young black man he too could have faced a similar ordeal.
"It's dangerous in America when you're living in a black body," Jordan said.
Jordan praised the men — Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — for their perseverance and courage during a luncheon in which the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California honored Netflix's series about their case.
"The whole time that these men were incarcerated, they never changed their story," he said. "They insisted of their innocence even as they did their time."
Salaam cried as he accepted an award on behalf of series creator Ava DuVernay.
"I'm not ashamed to cry in front of you," Salaam said after a moment of silence as he reflected on how he and the other men were "just boys" between the ages of 13 and 16 years old when they were wrongfully convicted.
"Our story is a story of an egregious miscarriage of justice," he added.
Jordan hugged Salaam, who also spoke on behalf of the five men.
"That's courage," said Jordan, whose performances have ranged from his acclaimed portrayal of a young black man killed by a police officer in "Fruitvale Station" to the vengeful Erik Killmonger in "Black Panther."
Salaam and the rest of the Central Park Five were exonerated in 2002 after being charged with the 1989 rape of a white woman in New York's Central Park. They received a standing ovation while accepting the ACLU chapter's inaugural Roger Baldwin Courage Award. Baldwin was one of the ACLU's founders and its first executive director.
"When They See Us" isn't Hollywood's first attempt to recount the story of the Central Park Five's wrongful conviction, but it has sparked a renewed interest in the details of the case.
Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, said DuVernay refocused the narrative on the humanity of the five men and it has shone a new light on a widely known case 30 years later.
The series has re-ignited outcry about how the case was handled. Linda Fairstein, the Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor who observed the teenagers' interrogation, has faced backlash for her role in their conviction. Fairstein has already resigned from at least two nonprofit boards as backlash intensified and a #CancelLindaFairstein movement spread on social media.
Shortly before the men accepted their award, Fairstein was dropped by her book publisher in the face of the increasing criticism. Villagra said that he thinks it's fair that Fairstein be judged for her actions, even decades later.
"It's in many ways justice delayed," Villagra said.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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