A militia group’s “call to arms” event is being investigated by Facebook to determine if it’s linked to the fatal shooting of two protesters at a demonstration condemning the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This is only the latest in a series of incidents that has called Facebook’s moderation efforts into question.
On August 25, two people were killed and a third was majorly, but not fatally, injured during a shooting at a demonstration in Kenosha. The shooter was named as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, whose actions were filmed and broadcast on Facebook Live; more videos have surfaced on social media since. Rittenhouse, who lives in Illinois, had reportedly crossed state lines for the event and was among many standing over the event, with an open-carry rifle. After being apprehended by Antioch police in his native Illinois on Wednesday, August 26, Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
On August 26, Facebook also removed an event that claimed to be a “call to arms” for armed civilians to attend the protest, saying it was to “defend our city tonight from the evil thugs,” according to The Verge. The event was created by a militia group called Kenosha Guard, whose page has also since been removed. The event was shared by Alex Jones’ InfoWars and had over 3,000 responses, according to reports. Facebook said the group had been removed due to its “new policy addressing militia organizations,” referring to its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, which was expanded to include militia groups on August 19. While the event was almost certainly responsible for a considerable amount of the armed presence at the protest, Facebook claims that, no evidence had been found linking Rittenhouse to the event directly. Facebook is currently investigating the matter more closely and has removed Rittenhouse’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram, as per its policy regarding mass shooters.
Too Little Too Late?
While Facebook has removed the event, and Kenosha Guard’s page, for breaking its policies, the prevailing question remains of why they weren’t removed sooner? In a separate The Verge report, the outlet says that at least two people had reported the event before the protest. Facebook’s response to the reports at the time was that while the event itself didn’t break its policy, individual comments in the group inciting violence may have, and suggested those individual comments be reported. Facebook broke with this initial assessment and deleted Kenosha Guard’s page only after the shooting took place, about nine hours after the fact. While the Kenosha Guard event’s involvement with the shooting merits closer examination before anything is known for certain, the situation leaves the door open for criticism, as while it’s possible Rittenhouse may not have been inspired by the inflammatory language of that particular event, the fact remains that he very well could have been.
Facebook events were first conceptualized to organize college parties and other similar gatherings. In the time since, the platform has become a tool that may be used to organize happenings that are more tactical, and sometimes brutal, than anything the company had first envisioned. Its recent decision to take a harder line against entities like QAnon and armed militias is a good step towards returning the platform to its intended use of community building. Yet when faced with such prominent blind spots such as this, it’s difficult to see those policies as much more than insurance and lip service. The fact may be that with 2.7 billion reported users, Facebook is ill-equipped to moderate its policies to the letter of the law. This is especially true during the age of COVID-19, when fewer moderators are employed to handle more work, leading to heavier blindspots in Facebook’s moderation than before.
The new phase of social media has begun, and it’s informed by the mistakes of its past and the loopholes its users have discovered. Social media remains an important tool for organizing and the spread of information, but when faced with the possibility of violence and armed response, hopefully the Kenosha Guard’s ’call to arms’ on Facebook may remain a mistake of the past.
Source: The Verge