Facebook"s continued fight against racism and social discrimination has led to the removal of dozens of Pages, Groups, and accounts associated with the Northwest Front. The Northwest Front is a group pushing for a white supremacist nation-state in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Specifically, the removal included 36 Facebook accounts, 10 Instagram accounts, nine Pages, and nine private groups. Many of these accounts were made under pseudonyms after Facebook removed the original accounts in 2015. Facebook"s Policy Director for counter-terrorism and dangerous organizations, Brian Fishman, claimed that the firm does not support groups that “proclaim hateful and violent missions." The publicizing of this removal establishes the company"s" stance and ensures to both users and the community at large that "enforcement in this space continues.”
Facebook’s content review process and policies were recently under the limelight courtesy of the outbreak of COVID-19, which has required additional resources that typically focused on other issues. The social media site promised collaboration with multiple tech giants to curb the spread of misinformation last week. However, it was not entirely plain sailing and many users reported having their posts misclassified as spam. Fingers were pointed at Facebook"s content moderator workforce, the majority of which is currently working from home, but were later exonerated.
Source: Bloomberg