[Air-L] Facebook enabling violent extremists in the US: response?

[Mathieu.O'Neil]

Dear friends and colleagues in the Internet Research community:

As the United States is struggling with a terrible pandemic, an economic crisis, and protests against police brutality and racism, it is extremely concerning to come across reports from credible sources showing that Facebook, out of a desire to placate unfounded criticism that it has a "left-wing bias" is allowing armed groups to explicitly organize for a civil war (aka "boogaloo") on its platform. These groups are not uniformly racist, though many overlap with far-right extremists.

The following article leaves no doubt that this activity is mere "shitposting":
Robert Evans and Jason Wilson, The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think, Bellingcat, May 27, 2020.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/

A recent report shows that Facebook knows exactly what it is doing:
John Whitehouse, Bombshell report: Facebook has known that it is fomenting extremism for years -- and refuses to stop, MediaMatters, May 26, 2020.
https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/bombshell-report-facebook-has-known-it-fomenting-extremism-years-and-refuses-stop

Clearly, what Facebook is doing is indefensible. It has to stop. What should be done?

I know some people on this list work for Facebook. I know some people on this list are being funded, or applying to be funded by Facebook.
I am sorry if this message places you in a difficult position. Everyone deals with things in their own way.

For me, Facebook has been an important part of my life for a very long time. I love keeping in touch with people from all over the world and learning about their lives and their societies. Leaving it would mean perhaps losing touch with these people forever. But, for me, that's not enough to outweigh what the company is doing.

I believe a strong message has to be sent now. I'm not very good at memes. But they work!
My proposal is simple. We create a meme with a simple message, something like:

FACEBOOK IS ENABLING VIOLENT HATE GROUPS
MAKE FACEBOOK STOP NOW
IF NOT:
#BOYCOTTFACEBOOK

We set up a resource page or Twitter account called #BOYCOTTFACEBOOK which outlines our point: stop doing this. Or we will leave. And we will urge advertisers and others to leave as well.

We set up a petition to collect sigs (expensive) or we get "influencers" to circulate the meme (cheap).

If someone has a better idea, please respond!

I wrote "we" and "our" throughout because I sure hope others feel the way I do. But if I don't hear back a more effective proposal within 48 hours I will make my own (crap) meme and post it to Facebook alongside this text. I will download my content and withdraw from Facebook - I don't want to leave completely as this is my only bargaining chip so will "suspend" my account or whatever is possible. I will also create the Twitter account.

Cheers,
Mathieu

PS. Some of you may have been harassed online by trolls for speaking out against racism and extremism. I am sorry. I never have. I don't want to be. If it happens, I will deal with it. We should not be cowed.

PPS. Some research on social media in general and Facebook in particular (taken from Bellingcat article):

Ines von Behr, Anaïs Reding, Charlie Edwards, Luke Gribbon (2013) Radicalisation in the digital era. The use of the internet in 15 cases of terrorism and extremism, RAND Europe.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR400/RR453/RAND_RR453.pdf

Séraphin Alava, Divina Frau-Meigs, Ghayda Hassan (2017) Youth and violent extremism on social media: mapping the research. UNESCO.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260382

Ryan Scrivens, Amarnath Amarasingam (2020) Haters Gonna "Like": Exploring Canadian Far-Right Extremism on Facebook. Digital Extremisms, pp 63-89.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-30138-5_4





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