Facebook Bans White Nationalism And Separatism

Facebook today announced that it’s banning praise, support, and representation of white nationalism and separatism on the world’s largest social network. This ban, which the company will start enforcing next week, will also apply to Instagram. The company says that these concepts are “deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services.”

Facebook has long prohibited hateful treatment of people on its platform based on race, ethnicity or religion. That has always included white supremacy as well, it says.

“We didn’t originally apply the same rationale to expressions of white nationalism and separatism because we were thinking about broader concepts of nationalism and separatism – things like American pride and Basque separatism, which are an important part of people’s identity,” it adds.

Facebook says that over the past few months, its conversations with the civil society and experts in race relations have confirmed that white nationalism and separatism can’t be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.

This doesn’t mean that people will not be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, but the company adds that “we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and separatism.” People who search for terms associated with white supremacy will be connected by Facebook to resources that are focused on helping people leave hate groups, such as Life After Hate.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web
Tags: Facebook