Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal' -- 3rd Update
January 11 2021 - 7:46PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah E. Needleman
Facebook Inc. said it is removing all content mentioning "stop
the steal, " a phrase popular among supporters of President Trump's
unproven claims of election fraud, as part of a raft of measures to
stem misinformation and incitements to violence on its platform
ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
The social-media giant said Monday that it would uphold its
decision last week to suspend Mr. Trump from posting for at least
two weeks, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying at the time
that the risks of the president using Facebook during this period
were too great.
The company also said Monday that it would continue to pause all
U.S. ads about politics or elections, including those from Mr.
Trump.
"With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome
of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence, and
use of the ['stop the steal'] term by those involved in Wednesday's
violence in DC, we're taking this additional step in the lead up to
the inauguration," Facebook said in a blog post.
"It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new
step but we have already removed a significant number of posts,"
the company said.
Facebook is among several prominent technology companies --
including Twitter Inc., Snap Inc., Reddit Inc. and others -- that
have taken steps in recent days to silence the president's personal
accounts or online communities devoted to him, citing rules
prohibiting content that incites violence.
The moves followed the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol
Wednesday by a mob of Trump supporters, who stormed the building
after the president and his allies urged them to march on it as
lawmakers convened inside to certify Mr. Biden's Electoral College
victory.
The efforts by the tech companies to try to deter additional
unrest continue to grow. Amazon.com Inc. said Monday it is removing
some products related to pro-Trump conspiracy QAnon, whose
followers believe Mr. Trump is under assault by Satan worshipers.
Separately, Airbnb Inc. said it is expanding safety measures ahead
of the inauguration, including banning anyone confirmed to have
played a part in the violence at the Capitol last week.
Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google also each removed from
their app stores the social-media service Parler, which had been
soaring in popularity among conservatives and other right-wing
users and is known for its loose rules for posting content.
Amazon's action on QAnon follows the company's decision to end
web-hosting services for Parler, which has featured violent
rhetoric in connection with last week's pro-Trump riot in
Washington, D.C. Amazon said it wasn't confident in Parler's
ability to sufficiently police content on its platform that incites
violence. Parler sued Amazon on Monday in response.
Followers of the fringe QAnon conspiracy, which has been labeled
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a domestic terrorist
threat, were among those that stormed the U.S. Capitol on
Wednesday. QAnon T-shirts, books and hats have been among the items
available on Amazon. Amazon says its policies prohibit products
that "promote, incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual
or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such
views."
Amazon is still selling merchandise related to the president.
Shopify Inc., a Canadian-based e-commerce software provider, last
week took down online stores run by the Trump Organization and
Trump campaign following the riot.
As part of its announcement Monday, Facebook said it would add
to its news feed curated stories about the inauguration and show
live video of the event when it takes place at the Capitol on
January 20. Separately, Facebook said it hired civil-rights
attorney Roy Austin as vice president of civil rights and deputy
general counsel and that he will establish a new civil-rights
organization for the company. Mr. Austin was previously a partner
at the law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP specializing in
criminal-defense and civil-rights law.
Facebook has taken action against the "stop the steal" movement
before, removing a group called "Stop the Steal" in November that
the company said had been organizing protests of vote counts around
the country. Around that time Facebook also introduced features
designed to limit the spread of false and possibly dangerous
content, such as one that requires users seeking to share
election-related material to click through a notice encouraging
them to visit Facebook's voting-information center.
Sebastian Herrera contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2021 19:31 ET (00:31 GMT)
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