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Militia Groups on Facebook Free to Encourage Followers to Bring Weapons to Protests

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Armed group with Facebook logo over it.

Illustration: Leaf and Core. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Let’s call armed “counter-protesters” what they are: terrorists. These terrorists have shown up at protests across the country, aiming guns into crowds. Some have even fired into crowds, with police refusing to take action.

Last week, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old with a semiautomatic rifle, traveled across state lines to attend a counter-protest. Police welcomed him, gave him water, thanked him, and, after he murdered two protesters, let him walk free.

Let’s rewind.

Kyle Rittenhouse traveled across state lines with a weapon he wasn’t legally allowed to have (or cross state lines with). He then shot and killed a protester and killed another who tried to stop him from escaping. He ran up to police, armed, with protesters shouting for the police to stop him. Police let him go. He got away from the crowds, drove home, and turned himself in to his local police in the morning.

His story is exemplary of what white privilege is and everything we’re protesting for. Police gave support to a murderer because he supported their discriminatory actions against Black people. Rittenhouse shot one unarmed protester 5 times, killing him. He was then chased down and a protester attempted to disarmed him. Rittenhouse killed him too. Then he walked up to police, protesters asking them to arrest the murderer, but police ignored them. Police let an armed white boy free after he killed two people and injured others, at a protest about police shooting an unarmed man in the back 7 times in front of his children.

But what was Rittenhouse doing there?

As a self-identified militia member, he may have been following the commands of a militia group on Facebook with over 455 reports over their calls to violence. Facebook has permitted such militia groups, spreading calls to violence.

Facebook’s Militia Problem

Facebook report response. Long post short, the response says, "though it doesn't go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand that the Page or something shared on it may still be offensive to you."Kyle Rittenhouse was a member of a number of “Blue Lives matter” and “Back the Blue” groups on Facebook. However, more troubling were the militia pages. These are from far-right hate groups, usually racially motivated, though they dislike all of the right’s usual targets: basically anyone non-white, non-Christian, and people who are homosexual or transgender. One such page was the “Kenosha Guard” page. Facebook users flagged it 455 times for violating Facebook’s rules against inciting violence. 455 times, Facebook decided to let the page stay.

“To put that number into perspective, it made up 66% of all event reports that day.”

– Facebook employee on an internal Facebook group

The page was reported multiple times before the protest and Rittenhouse’s murders. One person says she reported the post for encouraging militia members to put nails in the tires of protestors’ cars. Facebook allowed it. Other comments included users bragging about going to the event “locked and loaded.” Again, Facebook chose to allow it. This riled up users, leading to counter-protesters showing up with assault weapons. Facebook’s inaction may have directly lead to the shooting. Perhaps if Rittenhouse had not found groups advocating violence on Facebook, he would have simply stayed home instead of going out to kill people.

“Organizers… advocated for attendees to bring weapons to an event in the event description”

– From another Facebook employee on an internal post

Another person who reported the page spoke to The Verge. They stated, “I felt like it had the possibility to end in violence, and it did.”

Facebook’s Conservative Bias

A pattern couldn’t be more clear. We found out just this month that Facebook has gone lax on fact checking for their conservative news providers. They repeatedly allowed conservative sites to share fake news, and reset their “strikes” when Facebook should have instead banned them from their advertising platform. That in itself was the culmination of a pattern we had already seen. Facebook allowed Donald Trump to violate their rules leading up to the 2016 election when he called for the ban of all Muslims entering the country. The network has repeatedly held off on monitoring the platform for hate speech because it would catch too many conservatives. Facebook even went so far as to allow lying in political ads to appease Donald Trump, who had shared campaign ads with falsehoods.

Facebook’s conservative bias may come from personal political leanings. However, at its core, Facebook doesn’t mind stirring controversy to increase usage. Posts with hate speech, posts that call for violence, they all drive engagement. Facebook doesn’t care if people die as long as they planned it on Facebook and drove up ad revenue.

Facebook’s Response

Facebook post from the "Kenosha Guard" militia group. It reads, "Any patriots willing to take up arms and defend out[sic] City[sic] tonight from the evil thugs? Nondoubt[sic] they are currently planning on the next part of the City to burn tonight!After the shooting, Facebook classified it as a mass shooting, as the person targeted a group of people, rather than specific individuals. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, claimed that allowing the militia page to continue “was largely an operational mistake.” He blamed contractors. The page was reported nearly 500 times. That many people do not make the same mistake unless it’s their policy to make that “mistake.”

Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook made a mistake by not removing the militia page before inspiring violence. Facebook has not removed any other militia pages. No one has apologized for leaving the violent posts up. I suppose they got tired of pretending to be sorry every time they inspire violence around the world. After all, Facebook helped organize the Unite the Right rally that killed Heather Heyer as well.

Violence drives activity. Conflict, fake news, and violence are the lifeblood of Facebook. They’ll never apologize in earnest anyway, because to do so would be to admit wrongdoing, and Facebook sees nothing wrong in profits soaked in blood.

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