Facebook still has all — or just some, if you’re lucky — of your personal data, but the platform is now down two pages associated with white supremacist Richard Spencer. The site, after an inquiry from Vice News, deleted a page for the National Policy Institute, as well as one for Altright.com, a website run by Spencer. Collectively, the two pages had about 14,000 followers as of Friday afternoon.
Mark Zuckerberg, during his two days of congressional testimony, said Facebook does not allow hate groups on the platform. Which, well, LOL. Sure … in theory. “We do not allow hate groups on Facebook, overall. So if there’s a group that their primary purpose or a large part of what they do is spreading hate, we will ban them from the platform overall,” Zuckerberg said during his testimony. Following this testimony, Vice uncovered several hate groups on Facebook, including the two affiliated with Spencer. Facebook has also since deleted a page for the Nationalist Initiative.
From Vice:
Facebook said in a statement that they don’t allow organized hate groups to maintain a presence on the service. They filter them out through human monitors, technology that identifies hate speech, and partnerships with organizations.
And yet those failsafes did not catch two of the most prominent white nationalist groups in America.
In November 2017, Spencer’s Twitter account lost its verified status. His check mark was deleted along with those of white supremacist Jason Kessler, organizer of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and Laura Loomer.
