Facebook has deactivated about 200 accounts linked to white supremacist groups that were trying to gather supporters to attend protests over police violence against black people.
The accounts in focus were connected to two hate groups Facebook had already banned, the Proud Boys and the American Guard.
The wave of protests instigated by the death of George Floyd that has swept across the US continued over the weekend in Minneapolis. Authorities have charged fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with second-degree murder in Floyd’s death after a video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as other officers looked on. The other officers, who were also fired, have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Facebook had vigilantly kept an eye on the banned accounts and started to see posts encouraging people to attend protests in person. A company official told AP that some of those rallied preparing to go with weapons. The company didn’t provide details about where the account users were located, or what specifically they may have planned to do at the protests.
Just last week Facebook said, it would limit the spread of groups and pages on its platform connected to the term “boogaloo,” which some far-right groups use to refer to a supposedly forthcoming second American Civil War. It will demote the pages and groups in search results and won’t recommend them to users, Facebook said.
