US Protests: Facebook removes 200 accounts tied to hate groups

Team Udayavani, Jun 9, 2020, 1:05 PM IST

Facebook has removed around 200 social media accounts of hate groups that encouraged members to disrupt US protests

Hate groups like the Proud Boys and American Guard, both of which were previously banned were planning to disrupt the Black Lives matter protest.

It is  said that officials were already monitoring the accounts in preparation for removing them when they saw posts attempting to exploit the ongoing protests.

Brian Fishman, Facebook’s director of counterterrorism and dangerous organisations policy, said, “We saw that these groups were planning to rally supporters and members to physically go to the protests and in some cases were preparing to go with weapons,”

Earlier, Facebook said it removed a ‘handful’ accounts posing as members of the Antifa movement.

Apart from this, Facebook also removed fake accounts used to manipulate public opinion in Africa and Iraq.

Hundreds of fake Instagram and Facebook accounts  which were created in Tunisia in an alleged effort to influence elections in that country and other French-speaking nations in sub-Saharan Africa, were removed. The accounts and related pages were used to impersonate local citizens, politicians and news organisations.