Facebook last week removed nearly 200 social media accounts linked to white supremacy groups that reportedly urged members to infiltrate Black Lives Matter protests, according to the Associated Press. Some 190 accounts on Facebook and subsidiary Instagram were tied to hate groups Proud Boys and American Guard—already banned on the social media platforms.
A self-described "Constitutional Nationalist" community, the American Guard was founded by Brien James in 2016, and now boasts chapters across the US. Proud Boys—established the same year by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInness—is a far-right neo-fascist association that admits only men and promotes political violence. Both groups have previously been barred from Facebook for violating rules prohibiting hate speech.
"We saw that these groups were planning to rally supporters and members to physically go to the protests and in some cases were preparing to go with weapons," Brain Fishman, Facebook's director of counterterrorism and dangerous organizations policy, said in a statement published by the AP.
No further details were released; the organizations' specific plans remain unclear. Facebook did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment. The social media giant last week announced plans to deactivate more white supremacist accounts and root out fake users manipulating voters in Africa and Iraq.
Facebook also landed in hot water last week when CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the executive decision to leave up a post from Donald Trump implying that looters in Minneapolis would be shot, calling it free speech. Employees, however, disagreed. Many took to rival platform Twitter to voice their dissent, while one went so far as to resign from the company in protest. Zuckerberg on Friday offered an olive branch in the form of a lengthy post promising to revisit the firm's policies around content moderation—specifically concerning "excessive use of police or state force," voting during a pandemic, and warning labels.
Further Reading
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