Report: Facebook Failed to Stop Islamic Extremism from Going Viral

Facebook, which was able to suppress the New York Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story within hours of its publication in 2020, failed to stop Islamic extremist content from being shared extensively on the platform, according to a report.

The report, from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, claims that material promoting the Islamic State and the Taliban is still available on the platform.

Via Politico: 

The posts — some tagged as “insightful” and “engaging” via new Facebook tools to promote community interactions — championed the Islamic extremists’ violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, including videos of suicide bombings and calls to attack rivals across the region and in the West, according to a review of social media activity between April and December. At least one of the groups contained more than 100,000 members.

In several Facebook groups, competing Sunni and Shia militia trolled each other by posting pornographic images and other obscene photos into rival groups in the hope Facebook would remove those communities.

In others, Islamic State supporters openly shared links to websites with reams of online terrorist propaganda

Facebook has taken a dual approach to the Taliban, which is now in control of Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year.

The platform says it maintains a blanket ban against the Islamist organization, but internal documents have revealed that some members of the Taliban-controlled government, as well as pages for various government ministries in the country, are allowed to share content on Facebook.

Elsewhere, Facebook has frequently censored members of governments, including elected heads of state. In addition to banning Donald Trump while he was still in office, the platform has also censored the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, on multiple occasions.

It also censored a speech from the Parliament of Australia for violating its COVID guidelines, despite previous assurances from Mark Zuckerberg that it would not censor politicians.