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Facebook to ban all ‘praise, support and representation’ of white nationalism

Posted at 1:32 PM, Mar 27, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-27 13:32:31-04

NEW YORK — Facebook announced Wednesday that it would ban all “praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism.”

Then move came less than two weeks after the suspect in the terror attack at two New Zealand mosques streamed the massacre live on the platform. A manifesto allegedly written by the suspect reveals white nationalist views.

Facebook said while it had long prohibited hateful treatment of people based on race, it hadn’t applied the same rationale to white nationalism, “because we were thinking about broader concepts of nationalism and separatism — things like American pride and Basque separatism, which are an important part of people’s identity.”

It said it had reconsidered that after “conversations with members of civil society and academics who are experts in race relations around the world” who said, according to Facebook, “that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.”

The company said it will start directing people who search for terms associated with white supremacy to organizations that help people leave hate groups.

The company made the announcement in a blog post.