Facebook's ban on white extremism comes in between international press: NPR
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's annual developer conference in San Jose, California, May 1, 2018. Facebook begins to enforce a ban on white nationalist content.
Stephen Lam / Reuters
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Stephen Lam / Reuters
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's annual developer conference in San Jose, California, May 1, 2018. Facebook begins to enforce a ban on white nationalist content.
Stephen Lam / Reuters
The United States has long exported its culture abroad – think Coca-Cola, Hollywood and hip-hop. Facebook was once praised for spreading free speech values. But the world is pushing back with different values, which Facebook imports into the United States with the company's ban on white extremist content.
The ban comes into force throughout the world this week. Experts and spokesmen who have long lobbied Facebook to draw potentially dangerous speech say the movement – wrapped in the American cultural war – is a result of international pressure that forces the company's hand.
A Facebook spokesman says that under the new rules, users cannot celebrate their News Feed or Instagram: "I'm a white nationalist!" But they can post: "I'm a black nationalist!"
John Spier, a Facebook user in Central California, says it's "ridiculous". Spier, a self-protected libertarian, says everyone should have freedom of speech. "Though they are an idiot. There are many idiots in the world who say many stupid things. We do not need to protect people against it," he says.
What racism is and who can be racist is a debate that gets higher in USA Spier says that while Facebook claims to be a neutral platform, the company takes the liberal side.
(Note: Facebook is among NPR's financial sponsors.) [19659008] According to Facebook leaders and civil rights experts, this issue is not about speech, but about security. It is a well-documented fact: White extremists around the world are radicalizing men online, luring them into organized hate groups, and promoting lone wolf terrorist acts.
Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in a church basement in Charleston, SC, in 2015, was radicalized through Google's search. The white nationalist collection in Charlottesville, Va., In 2017 that left three dead and dozens injured, became Organized on a Facebook page, the shooter accused of attacking two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 50 people, used Facebook Live – an incredibly powerful broadcast tool.
![Social Media Companies Struggle to draw livestreamed video of mass shootings [19659019] Beirich says Facebook's latest move is in response to the New Zealand public relations disaster, as well as pressure from law enforcement - especially those in Europe who are worried about white extremist armies. </p>
<p> "This perception dies on the intelligence communities around the world, and Facebook hear from them, "she says. </p>
<p> A spokesperson tells the NPR that the technology company made the unusual move of adding the massacre's mission from Christchurch to In a terrorism database that had been focused on Islamic extremism. The spokesman says the company will continue to add white extremist content to the GIFCT database, which tech giants share to censor the most violent content. </p>
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Australia only approved a strict law that threatens social media employees with imprisonment if they do not remove violent content "quickly". Britain is in the process of uncovering legislation. Germany has passed tough hat issues that carry huge fines.
"The US is behind the eight ball on this," Beirich says. "[President] Trump doesn't seem to be interested in these issues at all. And I think Facebook responds to it in a good way, I want to argue."
About 90 percent of Facebook users are outside the US and the largest single market is now India.
Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on governments around the world to create a global standard of speech. It has never existed before. It's a long shot. But as Zuckerberg sees it, that's what needs to be constructed next.
