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| Facebook bans about 1,000 military social movements |
According to internal company documents, Facebook has included at least 986 groups in its list of banned "military social movements".
The secret blacklist of dangerous people and organizations on the Facebook platform has documented the extent to which militias are organized across the entire platform. In August 2020, the company responded.
To defend against allegations of aiding terrorists with propaganda, for many years the platform has prohibited users from speaking freely about people and groups allegedly promoting violence.
These restrictions appear to date back to 2012 when concerns about terrorist recruitment arose on the Internet. The platform added a ban on "organizations with a history of violent terrorist or criminal activity" in its community standards.
This soft base then developed into what is known as the "Politics of Dangerous Persons and Organizations", a comprehensive set of restrictions that have restricted the opinions of nearly 3 billion Facebook users to the growing list of anomalous entities.
However, critics say the policies of dangerous individuals and organizations, like other attempts to restrict individual freedom in the name of counter-terrorism, have become an irresponsible system that imposes disproportionate penalties on certain communities.
It was created based on a blacklist of more than 4,000 people and groups. Including politicians, writers, charities, hospitals, hundreds of late-night musicals and historical figures.
A group of legal researchers and civil liberties advocates urged the company to publish the list so users know when they risk deleting posts or locking their accounts by praising someone on the list.
The company refused to do so, saying it was putting employees at risk and allowing the banned companies to circumvent the policy.
Although the platform claims that disclosing the list puts its employees at risk. Facebook's content monitoring agency has officially recommended posting all content multiple times. This is because this information is in the public interest.
The Military Social Movement is part of a larger list of "dangerous individuals and organizations" across the platform. The term refers to armed groups that incite armed conflict and groups that support violence or theft during protests.
Facebook has been fighting militias since 2020
In practice, it appears to consist mainly of right-wing militias and a few left-wing, generalist, anarchist or anti-government organizations.
The list of "dangerous people" on the platform also includes hate groups such as white supremacist groups and the Ku Klux Klan. Al-Qaeda affiliates and other global terrorist organizations.
All such organizations are prohibited from maintaining pages, groups or accounts through the Service. Categories are divided into categories. Level 1 includes hate and terror groups, and users of the platform cannot praise or endorse them in any way.
Level 2 includes violent non-state actors such as armed insurgents who can only be praised for their nonviolent activities. Military social movements are rated at level 3 and there are no restrictions similar to those discussed by users.
In October 2020, the platform said it had identified 600 social and military movements. It deleted about 2,400 pages and 14,200 related groups. The company also said it has removed 1,700 pages and 5,600 groups linked to QAnon, and the organization has been classified as a social-military movement. But it is not an organized group.