Social media giant Facebook recently announced that it would be removing anti-government “Boogaloo” groups and pages from its platform. Mark Zuckerberg’s platform has already removed 220 such groups on Facebook and 95 Instagram accounts that it says violate its policies against organized violence.
NBC News reports that Facebook announced this week that it will be removing “Boogaloo” group from its platform. The groups are comprised of mostly libertarian, anti-government, pro-gun individuals who oppose federal restrictions on firearms and what they believe to be authoritarian encroachments by the government. The movement has strong ties to many current and former military members.
Facebook has reportedly removed 220 Boogaloo Facebook groups and 95 Instagram accounts that violated its policies against organized violence. 400 additional groups that were linked with the Boogaloo movement were also reportedly removed.
A Facebook spokesperson wrote in a statement: “Today we are designating a violent U.S.-based anti-government network as a dangerous organization and banning it from our apps. This network uses the term boogaloo but is distinct from the broader and loosely-affiliated boogaloo movement because it actively seeks to commit violence.”
Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University in North Carolina, who tracks online extremists and has been monitoring private Boogaloo groups online stated that the members of the now-deleted Facebook groups are likely to join other platforms such as Telegram.
“It’s a classic response to network disruption,” she said. “First, they’ll attempt to go to backup pages and accounts made beforehand, if they have them. They’ll also go to known alternate platforms, and in some cases may attempt to reconstruct the network on entirely new platforms.”
Squire added: “But this ban won’t be complete or perfect. They’ll miss things and they’ll likely apply their standards unevenly. So we have to keep watching. This isn’t over.”
Facebook has not banned Antifa from its platform despite it also being a group organizing violence. In fact, Facebook censored a Trump campaign ad denouncing Antifa violence.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com