Discussion

• @loisbeckett Lois Beckett on x

  An event by a Kenosha militia Facebook group calling for armed people to defend the city was flagged by users *455 times.* That is a huge number — 66% of *all event reports* that day But *four different* Facebook moderators decided not to take it down: https://www.buzzfeednews.co…

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  For perspective the Kenosha Guard event made up 66% of all event reports for the day according to an internal report seen by BuzzFeed News. The Guard and event pages were only taken down several hours after 2 protestors were killed by a 17-year-old gunman. https://www.buzzfeednew…

• @noupside Renee DiResta on x

  Looking beyond the specific instance here: internal employee notes that one event URL was flagged to the extent that it was 66% of total flags for the day. I'm surprised that significant anomalous volume spikes haven't been a signal for quite some time. https://www.buzzfeednews.c…

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  Facebook users reported the event for militia group, Kenosha Guard, 455 times for violating rules around the incitement of violence. The event asked attendees to bring weapons. Facebook moderators said the event didn't violate any rules. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...

• @slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x

  REPORTED 455 TIMES!!! WAT?? This is just screaming for either massive lawsuits or, more importantly, meaningful regulation and oversight. @facebook can't police itself, nor does it want to. #StopHateForProfit https://twitter.com/...

• @alantudyk Alan Tudyk on x

  quit Facebook https://twitter.com/...

• @fraying @fraying on x

  Facebook is an utter failure at its core job: to keep its members safe. https://twitter.com/...

• @alexhern Alex Hern on x

  Something that every single social network, as best I can tell, is allergic to, is proactive human moderation, meaning it's journalists who end up moderating Facebook while the company gets its act together https://twitter.com/...

• @qwongsj Queenie Wong on x

  Zuckerberg once said that content moderator make the wrong call in more than 1 in 10 cases. That's actually a lot of mistakes given that the social network has 2.7 billion monthly active users. https://twitter.com/...

• @vicky4113 Vicky on x

  @Techmeme @jmgrygiel @RMac18 There has been way more criticism of Facebook's policies than of open carry laws. Fix the root cause of the problem. White nationalists and militia will always show up at any BLM protest. If Facebook were taken offline today, the shootings won't stop.…

• @molly_knight Molly Knight on x

  Why the hell is any militia group allowed to exist on Facebook? What possible good could come from it? https://twitter.com/...

• @repbonamici Suzanne Bonamici on x

  A Black man was shot 7 times in the back with his kids nearby. In the same city, an armed white teen who claimed to be part of a militia interacted with police before murdering two protestors & walking away. This is what racist law enforcement looks like. https://www.jsonline.com…

• @etbrooking Emerson T. Brooking on x

  Thorough, shocking reconstruction of the Facebook and Reddit activity that occurred in the hours before yesterday's Kenosha murders. These individuals knew what they were doing. Superb work by @acarvin/@DFRLab. https://medium.com/...

• @akilahobviously Akilah Hughes on x

  I actually don't care about quirky reporting about social media influencers when this is the actual reality of most platforms. Let people spread radical ideas, wait for violence or harassment or threats, then delete. This is the story. Fuck a TikTok mansion. https://twitter.com/.…

• Newsmax Marisa Herman on x

  Zuckerberg: Facebook's Failure to Remove Militia Page an ‘Operational Mistake’

• Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x

  Facebook banned violent militia groups. We still found plenty of them on its platform.

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  I just got a leak about the leaks. A Facebook spokesperson just wrote this on an internal message board. Employees who send reporters information do so largely because they believe they are not being heard or that change is not possible via internal mechanisms. https://twitter.co…

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  Facebook employees are furious and unloaded on Mark Zuckerberg during an all-hands meeting yesterday over his handling of QAnon and a Kenosha militia page that remained online after a shooting that killed two people. Here's my dispatch from inside: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ .…

• @sachabaroncohen Sacha Baron Cohen on x

  Ignoring repeated warnings that Facebook users were organizing to slaughter peaceful protesters is not an “operational mistake.” It is complicity in murder. #StopHateForProfit https://www.cnn.com/...

• @donie Donie O'Sullivan on x

  Facebook's “operational mistakes” are destroying people's lives around the world. — Zuckerberg says Facebook made an “operational mistake” in failing to remove a page that encouraged armed Americans to take to the streets of Kenosha. https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.c…

• @ekp Ellen K. Pao on x

  What an unbelievable failure. Users reported the content at least 455 times. They made up 66% of all event reports that day. The next highest event had 18 reports. They don't monitor reporting spikes and now think maybe they should https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...

• @iansherr Ian Sherr on x

  I really struggle to believe Zuckerberg is that poorly informed. I think he's just trying to make himself/Facebook look like less of a screwup — again. https://twitter.com/...

• @juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x

  This is just a bizarre and false claim by Zuck. QAnon has been linked to violence since 2018. If anything “evolved”, it was the way that QAnon became a huge source of coronavirus misinformation since March. The threat of violence has been consistent. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/…

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  Mark Zuckerberg has now posted video from the portion of Thursday's Facebook all-hand meeting discussing Kenosha and the militia group that was not acted upon until after the shooting https://www.facebook.com/...

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  More from FB's Thurs all-hands: Mark Zuckerberg said Apple is charging “monopoly rents” and has a “stranglehold” on app distribution. He also shed light on his Oct dinner with Trump, saying the president brought up China, but they did not talk Tik Tok. https://www.buzzfeednews.co…

• @kevinroose Kevin Roose on x

  Mark Zuckerberg's claim that QAnon is *just now* evolving from misinformation to violence is patently false. An armed QAnon supporter blocked traffic at the Hoover Dam bridge in June 2018. The FBI called it a domestic terror threat in May 2019. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... h…

• @davidpepper David Pepper on x

  They're in over their heads. https://twitter.com/...

• @are0h @are0h on x

  Burn it down and build something better. FB is a main instigator of social decline. https://twitter.com/...

• @sjdemas Susan J. Demas on x

  Weird that highly profitable hate keeps happening there. https://twitter.com/...

• @kyleclark Kyle Clark on x

  Move slow and break America https://twitter.com/...

• @philipoconnor Philip O'Connor on x

  Facebook is an operational mistake. https://twitter.com/...

• @donnafedwards Donna F. Edwards on x

  So tired of hearing after-the-fact apologies, regrets by Mark Zuckerberg @Facebook #hollow https://twitter.com/...

• @willjawando Will Jawando on x

  I put this one in the “duh” category. 🤦🏾‍♂ ️ Serious changes are needed to protect people from hate speech that incites violence. https://twitter.com/...

• @nibrtv2 Niels Brinch on x

  Legislate and oversight and split it up - Zuckerberg is incapable of running this mega business https://twitter.com/...

• @rashadrobinson Rashad Robinson on x

  It shouldn't have required two dead protestors to remove a white supremacist “militia” page. We shouldn't have to die for Facebook's leadership to take the violent extremists on the platform seriously. https://www.vox.com/...

• @laurie_garrett Laurie Garrett on x

  “Speaking in a slow, halting manner, #Zuckerberg said the page & event listing violated #Facebook's policies & shld have been removed after the company received numerous complaints about their violent nature. He called the error “'argely an operational mistake'.” #KenoshaShooter …

• @natemcdermott Nathan McDermott on x

  Everytime there's a Facebook failure like this—whether it's promoting QAnon groups, white nationalist rhetoric, election disinformation—there's tons of reporting before they reach a tipping point. But Facebook only takes reactive measures after they've reached critical mass. http…

• @shannonrwatts Shannon Watts on x

  Stoking and arming hate in America is a lucrative feature - not a bug - for the millionaires and billionaires who run Facebook: “Zuckerberg seems truly incapable of taking personal responsibility for decisions and actions at Facebook,” one employee said. https://www.buzzfeednews.…

• @lostdiva @lostdiva on x

  So... Zuckerberg was responsible for shutting down all of #BernieSanders FaceBook pages & putting folks in Facebook jail but #Militia Groups With Guns is appropriate. Got it. Billionaires. https://twitter.com/...

• @ericgarland Eric Garland on x

  Apology not accepted. https://twitter.com/...

• @crimethinc @crimethinc on x

  The story being buried here is that although @facebook did not delete the Kenosha militia posts that led to two murders, they DID delete pages like @IGD_News that monitor militia activity. They ban anti-fascists in the name of stopping fascist violence. https://cwc.im/... https:/…

• @thegrugq Thaddeus E. Grugq on x

  Call me when they strike. They have actual power in this situation. All they need to do is exercise collective action, but instead they whinge and moan and do nothing. https://twitter.com/...

• @minhtngo Minh Ngo on x

  We are way past the point when this should have been done ... “At what point do we take responsibility for enabling hate filled bile to spread across our services? Anti-semitism, conspiracy, and white supremacy reeks across our services.” - FB employee https://www.buzzfeednews.co…

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  Comms uses this tactic to guilt folks internally not to speak externally and it often works. I say ignore it and follow your hearts (to my DMs) https://twitter.com/...

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  I'm not sure how many times me and people like @rashadrobinson & @tristanharris & @nicolewong can keep repeating: This is not a bug, it is a FEATURE. FB was built to do precisely what it is doing, which is to turn far too much engagement into enragement. https://www.washingtonpos…

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  He's really sorry this time: Zuckerberg acknowledges Facebook erred by not removing a post that urged armed action in Kenosha https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @jomc Joanne Mcneil on x

  grateful for @juliacarriew's phenomenal reporting because she understands and clarifies the stakes. This is a new low for Facebook and it is terrifying. https://twitter.com/...

• @tinch @tinch on x

  Facebook employees are the Susan Collins of tech. https://twitter.com/...

• @poopscruffin4u @poopscruffin4u on x

  Can someone explain to me why if I post a status containing the word “honkey” on Facebook, it gets taken down for “violating community guidelines,” but people can literally organize groups where they talk about killing protesters? I'm not being even remotely hyperbolic. https://t…

• @iskandrah Alexandra Halaby on x

  In my opinion, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most dangerous people in the world. https://twitter.com/...

• @ashisprotesting @ashisprotesting on x

  FACEBOOK EMPLOYEES: STRIKE. Most of you can afford it. Please. Join us. #seattleprotest https://twitter.com/...

• @elle_hunt Elle Hunt on x

  Won't ever forget being told by a Facebook employee he thought the coverage of his boss was unfair: “He's just a normal guy, trying to run a business” https://twitter.com/...

• @msmacb Katie MacBride on x

  It will never stop being wild to me (and an indictment every of every system that made it possible) that a dude who created a website to rank women now leverages that site in a way influences elections, domestic terrorism, and to some extent, the future of democracy. https://twit…

• @gilmored85 Daniel Gilmore on x

  Mark Zuckerberg will be remembered alongside Rupert Murdoch as one of the largest threats to democracy of this era https://twitter.com/...

• @ryandeto Ryan Deto on x

  Reminder that Pa Treasurer @JoeTorsella has been calling for Zuckerberg to step down as Facebook board chair and has been using PA's shares in the company to pressure him and other board members. https://twitter.com/...

• @alibreland Ali Breland on x

  what's particularly ridiculous about this kind of foot-dragging from fb is that reddit of all places was able to deal with this years ago. in 2018 reddit, a company with way fewer resources than fb, saw qanon communities inciting violence and banned them https://twitter.com/...

• @lexialex Lexi Alexander on x

  They should walk out then. At a certain point talk without action becomes meaningless https://twitter.com/...

• @hunterwalk @hunterwalk on x

  Google readies G+ -> Facebook goes into ‘lockdown’ and sprints to combat. Unifying call to action across whole company. Hate speech, misinfo etc is a trickier problem for sure, but has FB embraced a “we must win this battle” attitude in same way? https://twitter.com/...

• @cfarivar Cyrus Farivar on x

  “The company did not catch the page despite user reports, Zuckerberg said, because the complaints had been sent to content moderation contractors who were not versed in ‘how certain militias’ operate.” https://twitter.com/...

• @sarahcuda Sarah Lacy on x

  What's fascinating is today Instagram, WhatsApp would not have sold to Facebook on principle. The rapid erosion of Facebook's image is more staggering than Microsoft post-antitrust. https://twitter.com/...

• @oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x

  There is tons of internal pushback at Facebook, but the fact remains that this is a company largely run by one guy's decisions. Facebook's moderation decisions consistently waver based on the politics of the people that will give Zuckerberg more power. https://www.buzzfeednews.co…

• @jensalan Jennifer Salan on x

  “Other workers reported they still saw dozens of active QAnon groups, with one noting that they had reported a related page but were told it did not go against Facebook's community standards. “Our enforcement makes no sense,” ” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...

• @jcameronpeters Cameron Peters on x

  Facebook employees on Zuckerberg: “He seems truly incapable of taking personal responsibility for decisions and actions at Facebook.” Not exactly reassuring. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...

• @shiringhaffary Shirin Ghaffary on x

  Zuckerberg told employees Facebook made a mistake for initially not taking down a Kenosha militia group leading up to the shooting of protesters on Tuesday night, even after Facebook users had flagged the group for inciting violence. per @RMac18 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...

• @schoofsfeed Mark Schoofs on x

  SCOOP! Angry Facebook employees slammed CEO Mark Zuckerberg today in a company-wide meeting, questioning his leadership after a week in which the platform promoted violent conspiracy theories and gave safe harbor to militia groups https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... @RMac18 @BuzzFe…

• @owillis Oliver Willis on x

  anonymous facebook employees are getting to be like anonymous fox news employees in the “i am complicit in making the world worse and more dangerous but not willing to really do anything substantive” olympics https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...

• @brianfishman Brian Fishman on x

  None of the shooter's accounts were reported by users prior to the shooting. We have found no evidence that suggests the shooter followed the Kenosha Guard Page or that he was invited on the Event Page they organized. 3/n

• @carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x

  The shooting at Tuesday's protest feels like a taster of what may happen after US election. And guess who's implicated? Several people reported posts for inciting violence. Facebook refused to act. Until afterwards. When it deleted the evidence https://www.theverge.com/...