Technology

Facebook Announces Restrictions On Groups Like QAnon And Antifa

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Facebook announced Wednesday that it will take further action against pages, groups, and Instagram accounts associated with anarchist groups and other groups “tied to violence.”

The social media website said it will expand their “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy” to censor groups who reportedly pose a “significant risk” to public safety, such as QAnon, the company said in a statement. Facebook is also taking action against “offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests,” the statement said.

Facebook already has policies in place to remove content deemed to advocate for violence, and organizations or individuals who advocate for violence are banned from the website.

“However, we have seen growing movements that, while not directly organizing violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them, or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior,” the statement said.

UPDATE: Facebook gave me a few examples of the anti-fascist pages it took down as part of today’s purge.

The company removed the pages for:

– @IGD_News
– @crimethinc
– @PNWYLF

— Nick Martin (@nickmartin) August 19, 2020

Though Facebook will continue to allow users to post content supporting the groups, they will not allow anyone related to dangerous groups to organize on the platform, according to the statement.

“For militia organizations and those encouraging riots, including some who may identify as Antifa, we’ve initially removed over 980 groups, 520 Pages and 160 ads from Facebook,” the statement said. “We’ve also restricted over 1,400 hashtags related to these groups and organizations on Instagram.”

Facebook has removed around 800 groups, 100 pages, and 1,500 advertisements linked to QAnon, according to the statement. Around 300 hashtags were blocked on Facebook and Instagram, restrictions were imposed on around 2,000 groups and 440 pages on Facebook, and more than 10,000 accounts on Instagram.

The social media website said it will ban any non-state actor or group that qualifies as dangerous from the platform, according to the statement.