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OAKLAND, California (AP): Facebook on Thursday banned a large group called “Stop the Steal” that supporters of President Donald Trump were using to organize protests against the counting of presidential votes.
Some members had called for violence, while many falsely claimed that the Democrats are “stealing” the election from the Republicans.
Although the group amassed more than 350,000 members before Facebook removed it, it was just one of several smaller groups that appeared as the vote counting spread out over days in various battle states.
Within the groups, members and organizers tried to make sure to avoid Facebook moderators and “trolls” who might report or make fun of them.
“In keeping with the one-off steps we are taking during this heightened period, we have eliminated the ‘Stop the Steal’ Group, which was creating real-world events,” Facebook said in a statement.
“The group organized around the delegitimization of the electoral process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.”
Facebook said it will continue to monitor activity that violates its rules and will take action if it does. As of Thursday afternoon, a “Stop the Steal” copycat group was growing steadily, approaching 12,000 members, and was easily searchable on Facebook.
Within the groups, members posted unfounded allegations of election fraud and organized protests. Calls for violence weren’t immediately apparent, though the Center for the Fight Against Digital Hate shared a screenshot of a post in the now-banned group that read “Neither party is going to budge. Time to clean up. arms, it’s time to hit the streets. “
In the new group, administrators scrupulously warned members that they will eliminate anything that requires violence. They also made plans to move the group to other platforms.
Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center to Counter Digital Hate that lobbied Facebook to take down the group, said that while this all sounds like a game of hitting a mole, moles are slowly learning their lesson.
“By pulling out the biggest one, he sent a message to the others,” he said.
But Ahmed said it shouldn’t be that difficult to get Facebook to take action on such a large group calling for violence.
“There is a systemic problem with Facebook groups being exploited by people who spread misinformation, hate and incite violence,” he said. “It is a problem that they have known for a long time and they continue to fail to take adequate action. They usually only act when a lot of attention is paid to something.”
On Thursday afternoon, Facebook also banned the hashtag #stopthesteal. But he could easily have done it earlier. The term and others like it were mentioned nearly 120,000 times on websites and social media platforms throughout the day Tuesday, according to an analysis by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs. – AP
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