- Facebook was warned by multiple users about the violent intentions of the militia group “Kenosha Guard”, but initially refused to take action, The Verge reported Wednesday and Business Insider confirmed.
- Facebook eventually removed the group and staged a counter-protest that it had organized, several hours after a gunman – who the company says was not affiliated with the group – shot dead two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday night.
- A Facebook spokesman told Business Insider that it has a “specialized team” that enforces its new anti-militia policy, which it eventually determined the group was dealing with in violation, but that team did not heed the warnings from users.
- The miscommunication between Facebook’s moderation teams is the latest example of how the company is struggling to maintain its policies consistently, especially in the midst of rapidly exploding events.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
A self-proclaimed militia group in Kenosha, Wisconsin, used Facebook to organize a “call to arms” event hours before two people were shot and killed in protests Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning, hours after the shootings, Facebook removed the Kenosha Guard group as well as the event it organized, urging people to “take up arms and defend our city tonight from the evil thugs.”
But a new report by The Verge on Wednesday, which Business Insider confirmed, shows that Facebook has been warned several times about the group’s violent intentions prior to last night’s shootings.
At least two users reported Kenosha Guard, which had about 3,000 members, and the incident where it was aimed at organizing armed counter-protests – Facebook moderators warned on Tuesday that the pages contained messages that were likely to provoke violence.
In both cases, Facebook determined that neither the group, its “call to arms” event, nor specific messages – which, according to The Verge, contained threats to put nails in the tires of Protestant cars and discuss what weapons to bring – violated their policy.
Facebook had previously banned content that explicitly calls for violence, but last week introduced a new policy aimed at “movements that, although not directly organizing violence, have carried out violent actions, shown that they have weapons and suggest that they will use them, or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior. “
The policy, which specifically calls for accounts and sites “tied to offline anarchist groups that support violent actions amid protests,” says that Facebook will continue to post content to people who support such groups, but will take a variety of actions to remove or restrict the groups. ‘distribution.
Facebook eventually reversed the course, with a spokesman telling Business Insider: “The Kenosha Guard Page and its Event Page violated our new policy on militia organizations and were removed on that basis.”
But the company initially refused to take action, according to the spokesman, because users’ warnings on Tuesday did not make it to the team dealing with militia-related content.
“This work is being done by our specialized team whose primary role is to enforce our policy for hazardous organizations and which specifically enforces this new policy update. This team continues to study terminology and symbolism used by these organizations around the used to identify language that indicates violence so that we can take action, “the Business Insider spokesman said.
The difference between how the normal team of Facebook content moderators and their “specialist” team dealt with the Kenosha group shows their challenges in consistently maintaining an increasingly complex and ever-evolving set of policies – especially in rapidly evolving events.
“Between the time the Facebook moderators were first warned that the group was violating their policies and the time it actually took action, shooters and armed shooters killed and killed two Protestants in the same demonstrations where Kenosha had urged people to” to take up arms. “
“At this time, we have not found any evidence on Facebook that suggests that the shooter followed the Kenosha Guard Page or that he was invited to the Event Page they organized,” the spokesman said, adding that Facebook pointed out the incident. as a mass shooter and takes a variety of steps to remove content that praises or supports the shooter or his actions and works with legal action on the matter.
Facebook recently announced several actions on groups promoting violence, white supremacy and conspiracies as pressure was put on the social media giant to curb toxic and dangerous content on its platform. But many of the groups have already used Facebook to recruit millions of members and reach even more people with their content, with critics saying the company has waited too long to take action.
Despite the alleged setbacks, Facebook has continued to struggle to oust such groups, and recent reports have found that Facebook has long been aware that its powerful recommendation algorithm encourages extremist and polarizing content, but that executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg have ignored the problem.
This story was updated to reflect an additional response from Facebook to clarify how it is forcing its anti-militia policy.
