We have already read about Tumblr taking a stand in deactivating all accounts that promote hate speech and push the propaganda. Well, it looks like Facebook has also followed the trend of Tumblr in removing all groups, pages and accounts which promoted conspiracy theories during the 2020 elections.
Facebook announced that they’ll be removing accounts as on from the first of April, on “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. Facebook, also took measures in removing accounts which were linked to Russia and Iran as well as the VDARE that promoted anti-immigration in the United States.
The removals were triggered the first time Facebook announced enforced action through QAnon, a group of people that originated from 4Chan which they have had traces of being banned in other social platforms such as Reddit. Facebook never revealed who exactly is behind all these transparencies, which is why an investigation was made with different individuals associated with QAnon. Facebook head of security Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher said,
“The accounts pre date the coronavirus pandemic, but that we’ve seen them opportunistically leverage COVID- related topic. They frequently posted about news and topics including the upcoming presidential election and candidates, the current US administration, anti-Semitic and anti-Asian conspiracies, and Covid- 19”
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Facebook further, wrote down a report on why they took down certain accounts and pages. Not having to turn a blind eye, some of the accounts sabotaged Facebook by selling t-shirts and other merchandise without having relevant permission to partake in this manifesto. Facebook said,
“One hundred and thirty-three thousand users had followed at least one of the pages and thirty thousand more had joint at least one of the groups. While that’s a tiny subset of Facebooks 195 million US users, it still highlights how a small number of “fringe” accounts can gain relatively wide distribution on social network.”
