Victims lament real-world violence fuelled by social media

NEW YORK: On August 25, Hannah Gittings watched in horror as her friend Anthony Huber was fatally shot during a demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to protest the police killing of a Black man at the hands of police.

The events turned violent when an extreme right militia group called the Kenosha Guard called on Facebook followers to "protect" the city, and a 17-year-old member of the group opened fire on Huber with a semi-automatic rifle.

Gittings blamed Facebook for failing to take down what seemed to be a clear incitement of violence. The page "was left up and not only left up, it was deemed not threatening, not a danger when they’re clearly people blatantly inciting violence, saying they’re going to shoot Black people," Gittings told a news conference organised by the activist group Avaaz.

The tragic incident highlighted concerns that social networks such as Facebook are being used to foment real-world violence with little or no control by the platforms. Facebook and other social platforms, which are also often used to organise peaceful events and pro-democracy movements, have been condemned for failing to stop a range of abusive and hateful content including organised violence such as the massacre of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and the beheading of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty near Paris.

A Facebook spokesperson, queried by AFP, said, "We remain vigilant when it comes to policing hate speech, calls for violence, and misinformation." The company said that since August it identified over 600 militarised social movements, and removed their pages or accounts, as part of an effort that took down 22.1 million posts containing "hate speech".

"We always know there is more to do, which is why we’re constantly working to improve our technology and tighten our policies when necessary to keep dangerous content off our platform," the company said. But critics say Facebook still falls short on many occasions.

Executives "need to understand that what happens on Facebook doesn’t just stay on Facebook," said Joyce Jones, a mayoral candidate in Alabama who had to fight Facebook rumors that dogged her campaign. "It goes home with us, it goes to the grocery store with us, it goes to our jobs. Our children are affected."