Tech & Sci
2020.08.29 10:04 GMT+8

Zuckerberg admits Facebook's fault for not removing a militia post

Updated 2020.08.29 10:04 GMT+8

Screenshot from Zuckerberg's Facebook page

Mark Zuckerberg admitted Facebook's fault for not removing the page and event of a militia group, which encouraged armed civilians to protest before two people were killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 

The page for "Kenosha Guard," and an event listing for "Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property" were only taken down after the fatal shootings Tuesday night in which a 17-year-old boy killed two men and seriously wounded a third.

The page and event listing violated Facebook's policies and should have been removed after numerous complaints were received about the group's violent nature, Zuckerberg said in a video to employees that he posted publicly on his Facebook profile, adding it was "largely an operational mistake."

Employees are furious about the company's mishandling over the content from QAnon conspiracy theorists and militia group like the "Kenosha Guard," with one questioning "At what point does Facebook take responsibility for enabling hate filled bile to spread across our services? 

But the CEO of the social media company said there was no evidence that Kyle Rittenhouse, the boy who charged in the shooting followed the Kenosha Guard page or that he had been invited to the event page calling for an armed response to protests in the city.

"The contractors and reviewers who the initial complaints were funneled to basically didn't pick this up," Zuckerberg said. "And on second review, doing it more sensitively, the team that's responsible for dangerous organizations recognized that this violated the policies and we took it down."

According to the Washington Post, Facebook acknowledged in 2018 it had been used to "foment division and incite offline violence" during ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority group in Myanmar. Last year, a gunman live-streamed on Facebook the shooting of Muslims in a New Zealand mosque that left dozens dead.

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