(Reuters) – Facebook Inc escalated the battle against the amorphous anti-government “boogaloo” movement on Tuesday, banning the accounts of adherents who encouraged violence during recent protests against racism in the United States.
FILE PHOTO: You see a 3D printed Facebook logo placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken on March 25, 2020. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration
The social media company for the first time designated a subset of boogaloo followers as a dangerous organization, tagging them for the same Facebook sanctions (FB.O) applies to 250 white supremacist groups and organizations that it classifies as supporting terrorism worldwide.
The move came four days after Attorney General William Barr established a Justice Department task force to counter violent extremists against the government, including boogaloo, as well as the anti-left movement.
The name of the boogaloo movement is inspired by the 1984 breakdance movie “Breakin ‘2: Electric Boogaloo”. Followers suggest that just as the film was a sequel, any coming conflict would be the sequel to the American Civil War.
“This violent network is prohibited from having a presence on our platform and we will remove content that praises, supports, or represents it,” Facebook said in a blog post. “It actively promotes violence against civilians, law enforcement, and government officials and institutions.”
Facebook said its policy was a forceful instrument that included removing praise for the forbidden network and sharing images, so many of those who thought the posts were fun would also see their material removed. The target network includes 106 Facebook groups and 220 accounts, and another 400 groups were also removed for hosting similar content.
Prosecutors have linked supporters of the boogaloo to several violent incidents during the recent wave of protests in the United States following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
Two men inspired by the boogaloo movement were charged in California with the murder of a court guard during a night of close protests.
In Las Vegas, three people who prosecutors say are members of the boogaloo movement were arrested and charged with planning to incite violence and destruction during the protests.
Evidence of US police concern about the boogaloo emerged in pirated documents released June 19 by the leaked site Distributed Denial of Secrets. Dozens of analysis documents concluded that the term is used by far-right, race-motivated actors who encourage violence against the police.
The advocacy group for the Southern Poverty Law Center said the term boogaloo “is regularly deployed by white and neo-Nazi nationalists who want to see society descend into chaos so they can come to power and build a new fascist state.”
QUICK CHANGE SYMBOLS
Rather than using widely known symbols, boogaloo images evolve rapidly, even removing the word boogaloo in favor of namesakes like big igloo and big luau, and then adopting new symbols like igloos and Hawaiian shirts.
“Members of this network seek to recruit others within the broader boogaloo movement, sharing the same content online and adopting the same offline appearance as others in the movement to do so,” Facebook said.
The company said it anticipated a complicated cycle of objections, evasions, and evolutions as some of the banned account holders return with new names.
Before the Facebook move, Reuters spoke to two managers of a boogaloo Facebook page called Big Igloo Bois, created about a year ago, which has nearly 37,000 followers. Both are military veterans, one in his 40s from Pennsylvania and the second in his 30s from North Carolina.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they rejected accusations that the Boogaloo movement is extremist or violent.
“We vehemently oppose the idea of using violence to convey their point of view. We are scared of the idea of being violent extremists because we support the Second Amendment, ”said one of the administrators, referring to the right of the United States Constitution to bear arms.
The Justice Department, in a memorandum to police and prosecutors, said that extremists, including supporters of the boogaloo, had committed acts of violence.
“Some pretend to profess a message of freedom and progress, but in reality they are forces of anarchy, destruction and coercion,” Barr said.
Big Igloo Bois’ Facebook account appeared to have been among those that were removed on Tuesday. Last week, one of the group’s administrators said, “Every day I am happy that we are still on Facebook.”
Reports by Joe Menn in San Francisco, Mark Hosenball in Washington and Michelle Nichols in New York; Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman Edition
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