Facebook ‘suggested friends’ is contact service for extremists

Facebook has been accused of actively connecting ISIS extremists through its “suggested friends” feature.

A new study, the findings of which will be published this month by the Counter Extremism Project, reveals the social media giant helped to introduce thousands of terrorists around the world, enabling them to grow new networks and recruit members.

The report, seen by The Telegraph newspaper, will add pressure on Facebook to do more to combat terrorist activity on its platform. The world’s biggest social network is already facing the wrath of politicians over its failure to remove terrorist material posted online.

The project is a non-profit organisation that aims to battle the online reach of extremist groups such as ISIS.

Its researchers examined the Facebook activity of 1,000 ISIS supporters in 96 countries and found they were routinely introduced to each other through the “suggested friends” feature.

The feature is designed to connect people who have common interests, using a range of algorithms. Facebook amasses a huge amount of personal data about its users, which is used to direct advertisements.

“Facebook, in their desire to connect as many people as possible, has inadvertently created a system that helps to connect extremists and terrorists,” said Robert Postings, one of the researchers on the report.

Mr Postings experienced this after he clicked on several news stories about a Muslim extremist uprising in the Philippines. He was then bombarded with friend suggestions for extremists in that region within just a few hours.

Once a connection has been made, Facebook’s failure to tackle terrorist material on its site means extremists can quickly radicalise vulnerable targets.

Out of the 1,000 profiles of ISIS sympathisers listed by researchers, fewer than 50 per cent had been suspended by the social media group after six months.

“Removing profiles that disseminate ISIS propaganda, call for attacks and otherwise support the group is important,” Mr Postings said. “The fact that the majority of pro-ISIS profiles in this database have gone unremoved by Facebook is exceptionally concerning.”

In other cases, users supportive of ISIS who were suspended have been able to reactivate their accounts after complaining to moderators.

A British terrorism suspect, accused of having posted ISIS propaganda, had his Facebook account reinstated nine times after complaining.

“The failure to effectively police its platform has allowed Facebook to become a place where extensive ISIS support networks exist, propaganda is disseminated, people are radicalised and new supporters are recruited,” said Gregory Waters, another researcher.

A spokesman for Facebook told The Telegraph that there was “no place” for extremists on the platform.

“We work aggressively to ensure that we do not have terrorists or terror groups using the site and we also remove any content that praises or supports terrorism,” he said.

“Our approach is working – 99 per cent of ISIS and Al Qaeda-related content we remove is found by our automated systems. But there is no easy technical fix to fight online extremism.

“We have and will continue to invest millions of pounds in both people and technology to identify and remove terrorist content.”

The site’s failure to tackle terrorist material means extremists can quickly radicalise vulnerable targets