How Facebook is tackling hate speech
White supremacist accounts, posts, events removed after violence in Charlottesville
Facebook has cracked down on hate speech in the wake of a violent Charlottesville, Virginia, rally by removing online accounts and posts from white supremacists.
A company spokesperson on Tuesday pointed to eight pages or accounts, which the Menlo Park tech firm pulled down from Facebook and Instagram, including the Right Wing Death Squad, Genuine Donald Trump and White Nationalist America.
Facebook said it also shut down pages for the Right Winged Knight, Awakening Red Pill, Physical Removal, Awakened Masses and Vanguard America.
Meanwhile, some of the company’s executives spoke out against the violence that erupted over the weekend in Charlottesville.
“Every generation has to be vigilant in fighting against the type of bigotry and hatred that was displayed by the white supremacists in Charlottesville. Along with millions of others, I was so heartbroken this weekend,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a post on the social network this week.
Over the weekend, Facebook removed the event page for the “Unite the Right” rally because of a threat of real-world harm and its link to hate groups.
The tech firm has also pulled down posts that linked to a Daily Stormer article that attacked Heather Heyer, a 32-yearold woman who was killed after a car plowed into a crowd protesting the white nationalist rally.
Other tech firms, including Google, Reddit and GoDaddy, also have fought back against hate speech from white supremacists.
Facebook, like other tech firms, has online rules that bar content which attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, religion and other characteristics.
But the tech firm has also made errors in the past by mistakenly censoring users who call out racism. And Facebook, which has been accused before of censoring conservative news, is also weighing free-speech concerns.
The company says it does allow users to “challenge ideas, institutions and practices,” but does not want to be a platform for violence. The “United the Right” rally’s event page was originally allowed on Facebook until the tech firm determined there was a threat of real-world harm.
Facebook also said it doesn’t remove posts addressing the Daily Stormer article about Heyer if the user is condemning the content.
The tech firm declined to say how many hate complaints it has received since the Charlottesville protest.
The company is not only relying on technology and reports from users, but finding some of this content on its own.
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has more than 2 billion million active users.