Facebook has deleted almost 150 accounts and groups on its platforms that the Internet company was able to assign to the controversial lateral thinker movement.
In addition, Facebook made its findings available to other platforms, scientific institutions, law enforcement authorities and political actors
It is the world's first targeted action against a group that causes “coordinated social damage,” Facebook security manager Nathaniel Gleicher told the DPA on Thursday, September 16, 21. The accounts of Lateral Thinking founder Michael Ballweg were also affected.
The campaign is directed against “lateral thinkers” on Facebook itself and Instagram. Facebook manager Gleicher accused the lateral thinkers of repeatedly and coordinately violating Facebook's community standards. “This includes publishing health-related misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence.”
Facebook itself writes in its newsroom, among other things (translated)
Measures against a network in Germany associated with lateral thinking
We removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages, and groups for repeated, coordinated violations of our Community Standards, including by posting harmful misinformation, hate speech, and incitement to violence. We have also blocked their domains from sharing on our platform. This network was run by people associated with the Querdenken movement in Germany, which has been linked to off-platform violence and other social harms.
The individuals behind this activity used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and distribute hurtful content primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government's COVID-19 restrictions were part of a larger one The plan is to deprive citizens of their freedoms and basic rights. These activities appeared to span multiple internet services and the internet more broadly, and typically portrayed violence as a means to overcome pandemic-related government measures restricting personal freedoms. According to public reports, this group committed physical violence against journalists, police officers and medical professionals in Germany.
This network has consistently violated our community standards against harmful misinformation, incitement to violence, bullying, harassment, and hate speech, and we have repeatedly taken action against their hurtful posts. While we do not ban all Lateral Thinking content, we continue to monitor the situation and will take action if we identify additional violations to prevent abuse on our platform and protect users of our services.
We shared information about our findings with industry colleagues, researchers, law enforcement agencies and policymakers. In doing so, we hope to promote public understanding of this evolving area and the potential harm it poses to society.
Source: Facebook / Removing New Types of Harmful Networks
Notes:
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