After five months of research, a whistleblower says Facebook allows terrorist sympathizers to thrive not only by failing to remove their accounts, but also by auto-creating celebratory videos and pages for terrorist groups.
The National Whistleblower Center in Washington (NWC) has published a 48-page comprehensive study into how Facebook neglects to curb, and even boosts, Al-Qaeda affiliated militants’ outreach, arguing that Facebook’s lack of action facilitates the recruitment of terrorists.
The study, conducted by an unnamed whistleblower from August through December 2018, showed that out of 3,228 accounts belonging to ‘friends’ of self-identified terrorists, only 30 percent were removed by the platform.
These “friends” hail from around the world. Those who were singled out for the survey are based in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Among them, “many openly identified as terrorists themselves and shared extremist content,” the executive summary of the report states.
The social media giant, which recently prided itself on taking down 99 percent of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) related content before it is reported by users, actually creates such content itself with its auto-generating tools, according to the report.
The NWC says it has filed a petition with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for it to “sanction Facebook for its dishonesty about terror and hate content on its website.”
Facebook has come under fire for what some believe was a slow and half-hearted response to the recent mosque attack in New Zealand, which saw an attacker livestreaming the massacre of 50 Muslims. Although the video was taken down, copies spread throughout social media.
Responding to allegations that it aids terrorist supporters, Facebook told AP that it has been investing heavily into stamping out terrorist content and is “detecting and removing terrorism content at a far higher success rate than even two years ago.”
“We don’t claim to find everything and we remain vigilant in our efforts against terrorist groups around the world,” the company said.