An internal Facebook report found it failed to take appropriate action against Stop the Steal groups before Capitol riot, saying it should “do better next time”
including the Proud Boys — and not kicking them off. This is despite PBs being banned since 2018. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... Inti De Ceukelaire / @intidc : Top voted question for Zuckerberg at an internal QA session. Nuff said. And no, pointing your users to an unaffiliated third party checkup tool in some hard to find help article is not considered “informing them” https://twitter.com/... Jessica Brandt / @jessbrandt : @noUpside Not least because this was arguably the *most* predictable circumstance re: 2020 (the other being a potential HLO that put pressure on platforms to act in real time, before the possibility of definitive attribution — a damned if you do or don't situation) Nina Jankowicz / @wiczipedia : The problem of authentic, local voices in amplifying and laundering rhetoric harmful to public safety is a point I and others have been making for years! (See for instance: https://www.nytimes.com/...) The myopic nature of FB policymaking is infuriating. https://twitter.com/... Michael B. Kelley / @michaelbkelley : Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on 1/11/21: “I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don't have our abilities to stop hate and don't have our standards and don't have our transparency.” https://www.snopes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jessica Brandt / @jessbrandt : @noUpside Exactly. The challenges associated with addressing disinfo pushed by real people, many of whom come by their views honestly, and whose speech is (rightly) protected are very real. But that doesn't absolve FB from doing more than admiring the problem. Sam Jeffers / @wrklsshrd : I read things like this, and think of lots of countries that aren't the US and wonder how there can be any policy for “coordinated authentic behaviour” that isn't just an ad hoc, realtime assessment of what's happening on the ground and how that's really not a job for a company. https://twitter.com/... Area Lycanthropope / @starchy : I mean Facebook also knows it was used to incite the Rohingya genocide, and “could do better next time,” so https://twitter.com/... Dr. Rebekah Tromble / @rebekahktromble : No more hand-wringing. No more “we'll do better next time.” It's time for accountability. 9/ @colorofchange : Let's set the record straight. @Facebook saw the warning signs and had all the tools to stop this. Instead, they sat on their hands as white supremacists used its platform to spread misinfo and coordinate an insurrection. https://twitter.com/... Mike Rothschild / @rothschildmd : It's getting harder and harder to justify the continued existence of Facebook in its current form. https://twitter.com/... Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix : While Zuckerberg testified to Congress FB did all it could to curb violence after the election, an internal report says FB “failed to stop a highly influential movement from using its platform to delegitimize the election, encourage violence, and help incite the Capitol riot.” https://twitter.com/... Renee DiResta / @noupside : This is very frustrating: ‘Ultimately, the report says, the issue is that the company is not prepared to deal with what it calls “coordinated authentic harm.”’ That ‘coordinated *inauthentic* behavior’ is limited in scope, that networked activism is a thing - both v well known. https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : My conclusion after how they responded after my 2016 letter to their CEO. Two years later, multiple cover-ups later then decided the current leadership was no longer to be trusted. https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Thanks to @BuzzFeedNews, we now know this was the third most popular question at Facebook's internal meeting today. THAT SAYS SOMETHING. Their own employees know they're being dishonest and irresponsible. ht @CraigSilverman@RMac18 @JaneLytv https://twitter.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : “Do better next time” is basically Facebook's slogan at this point https://twitter.com/... Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich : “This shows [Facebook] is anti-democratic at the very least, & at the very worst, it shows that they know the risk, & they know the harm that can be caused, & they are not willing to do anything significant to stop it from happening again.” — @BostonJoan https://twitter.com/... Stephen Fowler / @stphnfwlr : “Hindsight is 20/20, at the time, it was very difficult to know whether what we were seeing was a coordinated effort to delegitimize the election, or whether it was free expression by users who were afraid and confused and deserved our empathy.” Is FB run by ostriches? https://twitter.com/... Eric Geller / @ericgeller : “At the very worst, it shows that they know the risks, and they know the harm that can be caused and they are not willing to do anything significant to stop it from happening again.” https://twitter.com/... Brandy Zadrozny / @brandyzadrozny : Buzzfeed with another beast of a story about how Facebook is reckoning (or not) with its culpability in the January 6th violence. https://twitter.com/... @slpng_giants : This is damning. It also shows why @facebook's @OversightBoard is a sham. Their decisions don't mean a thing when the company itself continues to avoid taking meaningful action in the moment. How many times is Facebook going to promise to “do better”? They need regulation. https://twitter.com/... Daniel Kreiss / @kreissdaniel : Sadly, there was just no way FB could have seen this coming after the president's *months long* delegitimization campaign: “the report calls delegitimization a “new territory” in which “few policies or knowledge existed” prior to election night.” https://twitter.com/... Versha Sharma / @versharma : “a sober admission that a company, which recorded more than $29 billion in profit last year, still struggles to track and preempt networks of people seeking to sow discord and undermine liberal democracy in the US and around the world.” https://twitter.com/... Ryan Mac / @rmac18 : This report flies in the face of what FB's execs have said. Sheryl Sandberg, Jan. 11, 2021: “I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don't have our abilities to stop hate, don't have our standards and don't have our transparency.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy : “Even though the company spent months preparing for potential delegitimization of the election from Trump and his supporters, Facebook was outmaneuvered by a powerful network of coordinated accounts...” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... Ryan Mac / @rmac18 : Mark Zuckerberg, March 25, 2021: “We did our part to secure the integrity of the election... We didn't catch everything, but we made our services inhospitable to those who might do harm.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : A Facebook spox said the company took a number of steps to limit content that sought to delegitimize the election including the suspension of Trump's account, labeling candidates' post with vote-counting information after Trump prematurely declared victory, etc. https://twitter.com/... Ken Yeung / @thekenyeung : “Hindsight Is 20/20”: An Internal Report Shows How Facebook Failed To Prevent A “Stop The Steal” Movement That Undermined The Election https://t.co/FiLHVQ7Bt9 via @CraigSilverman @RMac18 @JaneLytv (tip @techmeme) @rmac18 : In the report, employees promise to “do better next time.” It shows Facebook employees were aware of Stop the Steal on the night of the group's creation, but did not have the tools or processes available to them to treat it like a coordinated movement. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... @rmac18 : The report outlines how motived “super-inviters” were responsible for inviting people to Stop the Steal and Patriot Party groups and compared the behavior to “growth hacking.” So... growth hacking a coup. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... @fwd : An internal task force found that Facebook failed to take appropriate action against the Stop the Steal movement ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, and hoped the company could “do better next time.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... Tom Namako / @tomnamako : “Hindsight Is 20/20”: An Internal Report Shows How Facebook Failed To Prevent A “Stop The Steal” Movement That Undermined The Election https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... via @CraigSilverman Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : The report shows FB didn't know the “Stop the Steal” movement was building for months before Nov 3. On election day it exploded in a viral FB group that “normalized delegitimization and hate in a way that resulted in offline harm and harm to the norms underpinning democracy.” Thanks: @thekenyeung
BuzzFeed News
Context & Ripple Effects
The warning signs were already inside Facebook's own dashboards: weeks before the election, its internal violence-and-incitement metric had risen 45% off hashtags and search terms, and the company still let Stop the Steal organizing run through November into January. The BuzzFeed-reported audit now closes that loop from the inside, conceding the platform not only under-moderated Stop the Steal but left Proud Boys pages standing years after their 2018 ban.
First-order effects
Facebook's own report hands its critics — including the Oversight Board and congressional committees already reviewing Jan. 6 moderation decisions — documentary proof that the failures were known internally rather than merely alleged externally.
If 'do better next time' is the recurring conclusion of self-audits that arrive after the fact, the structural endpoint is enforcement authority moving outside the company — to oversight boards with teeth and to legislators who can cite these internal reports directly as evidence.
The trend: Platform self-assessments are converting content-moderation failures from public-relations disputes into citable evidence driving external oversight and regulation.
Exclusive: An internal report reveals how Facebook failed to prevent the “Stop the Steal” movement from using the platform to “spread conspiracy, and help incite the Capitol insurrection.” This new evidence contradicts public statements from Zuck/Sandberg: https://www.buzzfeednew…
We obtained an internal report in which Facebook employees reckon with how they failed to prevent Stop the Steal. The report was circulated internally days after Zuckerberg told Congress that FB had done enough “to secure the integrity of the election.” https://www.buzzfeednews.c…
The top employee voted question at today's internal Facebook Q&A for Mark Zuckerberg: “What is our next big product, which does not imitate already existing products on the market?”
If the company is not willing to dedicate the resources, and incident after incident catches up with promises stated, is it time to conclude Facebook is not capable to regulate its own platform according to its own rules and intentions? ↘️ https://twitter.com/...
We flagged dozens of “Stop the Steal” groups, including in Questions for the Record when Zuckerberg testified before Congress in Nov before the 1/6 Insurrection. Facebook only addressed one group in their response to Congress, failing to take into account dozens of others. https:…
The Facebook report had eye-opening stats and charts. We recreated one for our story. While 0.89% of civic groups on FB had at least 5 pieces of content deemed as “violence and incitement,” nearly 43% of Stop the Steal groups showed the same behavior. https://www.buzzfeednews.com…
Lots of revelations in this report. One important detail: Facebook is tracking militia and hate group networks on its platform — including the Proud Boys — and not kicking them off. This is despite PBs being banned since 2018. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
While Zuckerberg testified to Congress FB did all it could to curb violence after the election, an internal report says FB “failed to stop a highly influential movement from using its platform to delegitimize the election, encourage violence, and help incite the Capitol riot.” ht…
My conclusion after how they responded after my 2016 letter to their CEO. Two years later, multiple cover-ups later then decided the current leadership was no longer to be trusted. https://twitter.com/...
Top voted question for Zuckerberg at an internal QA session. Nuff said. And no, pointing your users to an unaffiliated third party checkup tool in some hard to find help article is not considered “informing them” https://twitter.com/...
@noUpside Not least because this was arguably the *most* predictable circumstance re: 2020 (the other being a potential HLO that put pressure on platforms to act in real time, before the possibility of definitive attribution — a damned if you do or don't situation)
This is very frustrating: ‘Ultimately, the report says, the issue is that the company is not prepared to deal with what it calls “coordinated authentic harm.”’ That ‘coordinated *inauthentic* behavior’ is limited in scope, that networked activism is a thing - both v well known. h…
The problem of authentic, local voices in amplifying and laundering rhetoric harmful to public safety is a point I and others have been making for years! (See for instance: https://www.nytimes.com/...) The myopic nature of FB policymaking is infuriating. https://twitter.com/...
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on 1/11/21: “I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don't have our abilities to stop hate and don't have our standards and don't have our transparency.” https://www.snopes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Thanks to @BuzzFeedNews, we now know this was the third most popular question at Facebook's internal meeting today. THAT SAYS SOMETHING. Their own employees know they're being dishonest and irresponsible. ht @CraigSilverman @RMac18 @JaneLytv https://twitter.com/...
@noUpside Exactly. The challenges associated with addressing disinfo pushed by real people, many of whom come by their views honestly, and whose speech is (rightly) protected are very real. But that doesn't absolve FB from doing more than admiring the problem.
Let's set the record straight. @Facebook saw the warning signs and had all the tools to stop this. Instead, they sat on their hands as white supremacists used its platform to spread misinfo and coordinate an insurrection. https://twitter.com/...
I read things like this, and think of lots of countries that aren't the US and wonder how there can be any policy for “coordinated authentic behaviour” that isn't just an ad hoc, realtime assessment of what's happening on the ground and how that's really not a job for a company. …
“This shows [Facebook] is anti-democratic at the very least, & at the very worst, it shows that they know the risk, & they know the harm that can be caused, & they are not willing to do anything significant to stop it from happening again.” — @BostonJoan https://twitter.com/...
“Hindsight is 20/20, at the time, it was very difficult to know whether what we were seeing was a coordinated effort to delegitimize the election, or whether it was free expression by users who were afraid and confused and deserved our empathy.” Is FB run by ostriches? https://tw…
“At the very worst, it shows that they know the risks, and they know the harm that can be caused and they are not willing to do anything significant to stop it from happening again.” https://twitter.com/...
Buzzfeed with another beast of a story about how Facebook is reckoning (or not) with its culpability in the January 6th violence. https://twitter.com/...
This is damning. It also shows why @facebook's @OversightBoard is a sham. Their decisions don't mean a thing when the company itself continues to avoid taking meaningful action in the moment. How many times is Facebook going to promise to “do better”? They need regulation. https:…
Sadly, there was just no way FB could have seen this coming after the president's *months long* delegitimization campaign: “the report calls delegitimization a “new territory” in which “few policies or knowledge existed” prior to election night.” https://twitter.com/...
“a sober admission that a company, which recorded more than $29 billion in profit last year, still struggles to track and preempt networks of people seeking to sow discord and undermine liberal democracy in the US and around the world.” https://twitter.com/...
This report flies in the face of what FB's execs have said. Sheryl Sandberg, Jan. 11, 2021: “I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don't have our abilities to stop hate, don't have our standards and don't have our transparency.” https://www.buzzfeednews.co…
“Even though the company spent months preparing for potential delegitimization of the election from Trump and his supporters, Facebook was outmaneuvered by a powerful network of coordinated accounts...” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
Mark Zuckerberg, March 25, 2021: “We did our part to secure the integrity of the election... We didn't catch everything, but we made our services inhospitable to those who might do harm.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
A Facebook spox said the company took a number of steps to limit content that sought to delegitimize the election including the suspension of Trump's account, labeling candidates' post with vote-counting information after Trump prematurely declared victory, etc. https://twitter.c…
“Hindsight Is 20/20”: An Internal Report Shows How Facebook Failed To Prevent A “Stop The Steal” Movement That Undermined The Election https://t.co/FiLHVQ7Bt9 via @CraigSilverman @RMac18 @JaneLytv (tip @techmeme)
In the report, employees promise to “do better next time.” It shows Facebook employees were aware of Stop the Steal on the night of the group's creation, but did not have the tools or processes available to them to treat it like a coordinated movement. https://www.buzzfeednews.co…
The report outlines how motived “super-inviters” were responsible for inviting people to Stop the Steal and Patriot Party groups and compared the behavior to “growth hacking.” So... growth hacking a coup. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
An internal task force found that Facebook failed to take appropriate action against the Stop the Steal movement ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, and hoped the company could “do better next time.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
“Hindsight Is 20/20”: An Internal Report Shows How Facebook Failed To Prevent A “Stop The Steal” Movement That Undermined The Election https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... via @CraigSilverman
The report shows FB didn't know the “Stop the Steal” movement was building for months before Nov 3. On election day it exploded in a viral FB group that “normalized delegitimization and hate in a way that resulted in offline harm and harm to the norms underpinning democracy.”