Facebook was under harsh critique due to the recent Christchurch Terror attack in New-Zealand. The perpetrator that carried out the attack live-streamed his heinous act on the social media platform. The unfortunate event drew attention towards the lack of responsibilities of social media sites like Facebook and outraged the global community.
A recent report from The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) suggests (via The Independent) the renewal ascent of Neo-Nazi groups on Facebook is real and concerning.
The social media platform deleted ‘12.4 million’ pieces of terrorist material along with ‘2.4 million’ pieces of hate-speech content in 2018. However, Facebook denied the removal of Neo-Nazi propagandist pages ‘like Combat 18’ and ‘Misanthropic Divisions.’
The social networking site argues that the reported pages do not go against the platform’s community guidelines. ‘Be Active Front USA,’ another White Nationalist page, has also been granted the same type of immunity by Facebook.
Members of the above mentioned Neo-Nazi groups often post images of Adolf Hitler and socially insensitive messages degrading immigrants and ethnic minorities. These posts often depict non-white people as ‘vermin’ and homosexuals as ‘degenerates.’
Many Anti-semitic groups including ‘Green Light Front’ and ‘US National Alliance Reform’ also remain furiously active on Facebook and advocate for ‘White Revolution.’ These far-right groups also sell Nazi-related merchandise to fund their operations.
The inability of Facebook to curb hateful messages raises serious questions over the user’s safety on its platform, concluded the CEP report. Despite Facebook’s commitment to provide its users a safe social media experience, any ground progress is yet to be seen.
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