Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy

The Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy is a Facebook policy that aims to limit the activity of "militarised groups" on the platform.

In October 2021, a secret blacklist of "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy|dangerous individuals and organizations" maintained by Facebook was discovered by The Intercept, which revealed censorship in the MENA region was stricter than in USA.^[1][2] Critics and scholars have argued the blacklist and the guideline stifles free discussion, as well as enforcing an uneven enforcement of the rules.^[3][2]

Other individuals covered have included Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones and his organization InfoWars, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, and Paul Nehlen.^[4][5]

After partisan outcry, President Trump tweeted on the matter, decrying perceived targeted censorship against conservatives on social media platforms by private corporations. Facebook responded that the bans were not ideologically motivated.^[6]

Examples of the policy's use

Rania Khalek

In 2021, an image Rania Khalek posted on Instagram of a billboard celebrating Iranian general Qassim Suleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was deleted by the company under the policy.^[7]

Tommy Robinson

In February 2019, Facebook and Instagram banned the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson from their platforms citing violations of their hate speech rules including "calls for violence targeted at Muslims".^[8] Facebook subsequently placed him on its list of "Dangerous Individuals".^[9]

Iran

During the 2021 Iranian protests Facebook relaxed for a two week period its policy of not allowing posts saying "Death to Khamenei" as a newsworthiness exception.^[10]

QAnon

On August 19, Facebook expanded its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy to address "growing movements that, while not directly organizing violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them, or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior". As a result of this increased vigilance, Facebook reported having already "removed over 790 groups, 100 Pages and 1,500 ads tied to QAnon from Facebook, blocked over 300 hashtags across Facebook and Instagram, and additionally imposed restrictions on over 1,950 Groups and 440 Pages on Facebook and over 10,000 accounts on Instagram".^[11][12][13] In the month after its August announcement, Facebook said it deleted 1,500 QAnon groups; such groups by then had four million followers. On October 6, 2020, Facebook said it would immediately begin removing "any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content". The company said it would immediately ban any group representing QAnon.^[14][15][16]

Azov Battalion

In 2019, under Facebook's Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, support for the Ukrainian fascist influenced militia, the Azov Battalion was not allowed,^[17] although this was temporarily relaxed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[18]

Cameroon

In October 2021, it was revealed that Facebook had labeled the Ambazonia Defence Forces a "violent non-state actor".^[19]

Goebbels misattribution decision

In October 2020, a Facebook user posted a quote incorrectly attributed to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, stating that appeals to emotion and instinct are more important than appeals to truth.^[20] The post contained no images or symbols. Facebook took down the post under its policy prohibiting the promotion of dangerous individuals and organizations, including Goebbels. The account user appealed, asserting that the post was intended as a commentary on Donald Trump. The board found that the evidence supported this assertion and held that post did not indicate support for Goebbels, and ordered that it be restored, with the recommendation that Facebook should indicate to users posting about such persons that "the user must make clear that they are not praising or supporting them".^[20]

References

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