- Facebook, the world's largest social media network, banned white nationalism and white separatism on the platform on Tuesday.
- Facebook Counterterrorism Policy Director Brian Fishman told Motherboard that white nationalist and white separatist speech will now be treated the same was as white supremacist content.
- The social media network will target specific language related to the white nationalist movement and strong anti-immigration stances.
Facebook will now treat content posted by users about white nationalism and white separatist topics as hate speech, banning content and phrases associated to the movements, and targeting specific language.
The news was first reported by Motherboard on Wednesday, and Facebook subsequently confirmed it in a blog post on its website. (A spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.)
Facebook already considers white supremacy to be hate speech, and the new policy recognizes the overlap between traditional white supremacy and movements like so-called white separatism and white nationalism.
"Our policies have long prohibited hateful treatment of people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity or religion – and that has always included white supremacy. We didn’t originally apply the same rationale to expressions of white nationalism and separatism because we were thinking about broader concepts of nationalism and separatism – things like American pride and Basque separatism, which are an important part of people’s identity," the Facebook blog post said.
"But over the past three months our conversations with members of civil society and academics who are experts in race relations around the world have confirmed that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups."
Facebook Counterterrorism Policy Director Brian Fishman told Motherboard that the company had discussed the matter with more than 20 civil rights organizations and race relations experts before coming to the decision.
Facebook moderators will target specific content and phrases supporting white separatism for deletion. Motherboard reports that Facebook will also recommend nonprofits that provide help to people in hate groups when hateful content is reported.
The ban arrives two weeks after a white supremacist killed more than 50 people in a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. The shooter streamed the attack on Facebook, and footage was repeatedly uploaded to the platform following the attack.
In December 2018, a group of civil rights organizations criticized Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg for their failure to deter bigotry and hate speech on the social media platform. Sandberg admitted that the Facebook "needs to do more" to protect civil rights, and Motherboard reports that Sandberg had a role in crafting the new policy on white nationalism.
It's one of numerous criticisms that has been levelled at Facebook in recent months, which has lurched from scandal to scandal over the last two years — from mishandling users' data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal to helping spread hate speech that fueled genocide in Myanmar.
Racial justice organization Colors of Change commended Facebook's policy shift and encouraged other social media platforms to ban white nationalist idologies as well. The organization said that the spread of white nationalist ideologies on platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Amazon inspired the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville,Pittsburgh, and Christchurch.
"As part of today’s announcement, we’ll also start connecting people who search for terms associated with white supremacy to resources focused on helping people leave behind hate groups," Facebook added. "People searching for these terms will be directed to Life After Hate, an organization founded by former violent extremists that provides crisis intervention, education, support groups and outreach."
Do you work at Facebook? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at rprice@businessinsider.com, Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.
Read more:
- Car-bomb fears and stolen prototypes: Inside Facebook's efforts to protect its 80,000 workers around the globe
- Facebook quietly killed its Building 8 skunkworks unit as it reshuffles its cutting-edge experiments and hardware
- Leaked Andreessen Horowitz data reveals how much Silicon Valley startup execs really get paid, from CEOs to Sales VPs
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Watch Google's Stadia video-game-platform event in 5 minutes