Facebook announced on Wednesday a comprehensive ban on white nationalism and white separatism, two ideologies that the company previously viewed as different from white supremacy, which the social network blocked in 2018.
But activists and civil rights groups have long argued that the tenets make up distinctions without a difference.
“Today we’re announcing a ban on praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism,” the social media giant said in a statement. “It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services.”
The new policy comes less than two weeks after a white supremecist killed 50 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The accused terrorist live-streamed the attack in a horrifying 17-minute video. He also posted a manifesto laden with racist and white nationalist parlance on social media before going into the mosques.
Facebook said it did not originally include white nationalism and separatism in its ban on white supremacy because the company understood them in “broader concepts of nationalism and separatism — things like American pride and Basque separatism, which are an important part of people’s identity.”
In recent months, however, the company realized “that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.”
Facebook said its realization came after speaking with activists in civil society, academics, and other experts on race relations.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups in the U.S. and pressured Facebook to make the change, praised the decision on Twitter.
However, the group criticized the platform for banning white supremacy but allowing white nationalist and separatist content to spread “despite the lack of difference between ideologies.”
Facebook was also pressured by the social justice organization Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to update its policy.
“Took hard work to achieve this victory but our work is not over,” tweeted Kristen Clarke, the group’s president and executive director. “We will be monitoring Facebook closely to ensure that they implement this policy fully. We can't allow violent white supremacists to incubate, organize & recruit on our online platforms.”
In addition to external counsel, Facebook said it conducted an internal review of hate figures and organizations on the platform, which revealed an overlap between white nationalism and separatism and white supremacy.
Moreover, when future users search for terms associated with white supremacy, Facebook will direct them to Life After Hate, a counter-extremist group that works to interrupt violence committed in the name of ideological or religious beliefs.
“Unfortunately, there will always be people who try to game our systems to spread hate,” Facebook’s statement added. “Our challenge is to stay ahead by continuing to improve our technologies, evolve our policies and work with experts who can bolster our own efforts.”
The ban will apply to Facebook and Instagram and go into effect next week.
"Anything Is Possible," a documentary about NBA superstar Kevin Garnett recounting his career from being drafted out of high school to a championship with the Boston Celtics, is set to premiere on Showtime. Executive producer Marc Levin and co-directors Daniel Levin and Eric Newman joined Cheddar to provide some background on the project and discuss Garnett's legacy. With KG considered a pioneer for modern NBA draftees straight out of high school (the fifth pick in 1995), the filmmakers also discussed the possibility of the league reversing course on its current rule that requires a player to be at least 19-years-old and a year removed from high school to play.
Brian D. Avery, managing member at Event Safety Services joins Cheddar News to discuss how preventable the recent crowd surge at Travis Scott's Astroworld was.
Former NBA star, commentator, and entrepreneur Baron Davis and Deluxe Corporation Chief Brand Officer Amanda Brinkman, joined Cheddar to discuss Season 6 of the reality show "Small Business Revolution," premiering Tuesday. The season will focus on helping six Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Davis noted learning about the lack of resources, connections, and opportunities for Black business owners during the show. "There are so many things we need to do as a society to address racial injustice and inequity, however, one of the ways for it is economic empowerment," Brinkman added.
Cryptocurrencies are getting off to a good week. Ethereum surged more than 4% in 24 hours on Monday, hitting a new all-time high above $4,700. Meanwhile, Bitcoin surged 7% to a price of $66,250. Haohan Xu, founder and CEO of Apifiny, joins Cheddar News with thoughts on the growing sector.
Two days after a deadly tragedy claimed the lives of at least eight Astroworld concertgoers and injured several others, the first lawsuit was filed against rapper Travis Scott. Criminal defense attorney Karen Felecia Nance joins Cheddar News to break down the incident.
The latest Marvel movie hit theaters with one of the biggest opening weekends of the year. 'Eternals' opened over the weekend with an estimated $71 million, the fourth-best domestic debut this year. Erik Davis, managing editor at Fandango, joins Cheddar News to talk about the state of box office sales.
Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, join 'Cheddar Reveals' to discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output.
On this episode of 'Cheddar Reveals', Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output; Ryan Lupberger, Sustainability Pioneer and CEO of Cleancult, breaks down how Cleancult is redefining cleaning products and solutions to reduce their impact on the planet; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Going Circular.'
Figuring out how to reduce congestion and emissions has long been a thorny issue for the car-centric United States. One possible solution - high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV), or carpool lanes - have their own thorny history. Despite pushes from the federal government for more HOV lanes in the 1970s and 1990s, the math of how HOV lanes work may mean they relieve traffic only a little - or even make it worse.
