SAN FRANCISCO (US) – A rapidly growing “Stop the Steal” forum on Facebook was shut down on Thursday by the firm after the forum exhorted members to get armed should President Donald Trump lose the election.
After disabling the group, Facebook cited the group’s efforts to delegitimise the US election process and “worrying calls for violence from some members.”
But such rhetoric is not uncommon on Facebook in the run-up to elections. According to a survey of US-based Facebook Groups between September and October conducted by digital intelligence firm CounterAction, there was rhetoric with violent overtones in thousands of political groups having millions of members.
Variations of twenty phrases that could be associated with calls for violence, such as “lock and load” and “we need a civil war,” appeared along with references to election outcomes in about 41,000 instances in US-based public Facebook Groups over the two month period.
Other phrases, like “shoot them” and “kill them all,” were used within public groups at least 7,345 times and 1,415 times respectively, according to CounterAction. “Hang him” appeared 8,132 times. “Time to start shooting, folks,” read one comment.
Facebook said it was reviewing CounterAction’s findings and would take action to enforce policies “that reduce real-world harm and civil unrest, including in Groups,” according to a statement provided by spokeswoman Dani Lever.
Prosecutors have linked several disrupted militia plots back to Facebook Groups this year, including a planned attack on Black Lives Matters protesters in Las Vegas and a scheme to kidnap the governor of Michigan.
To address concerns, Facebook announced a flurry of policy changes since the summer aimed at curbing “militarised social movements,” including US militias, Boogaloo networks and the QAnon conspiracy movement.
It says it has removed 14,200 groups on the basis of those changes since August.
