Facebook bans white nationalist posts

Facebook will begin banning white nationalist or white separatist content on its platform starting next week, the social media giant announced on Wednesday.

Facebook officials formally decided to ban “white nationalism” and “white separatism” on the platform at a content moderation meeting on Tuesday, a move first reported by Motherboard.

The significant policy shift comes a year after Motherboard, a tech news outlet, reported that Facebook’s content moderation had allowed “white nationalism and separatism” on the platform, though it barred explicit “white supremacy.”

Facebook, in training documents for moderators last year, wrote that white nationalism “doesn’t seem to be always associated with racism (at least not explicitly),” incurring immediate backlash from civil rights groups and experts.

Brian Fishman, Facebook’s policy director of counterterrorism, told Motherboard this week that after speaking to a range of experts Facebook has concluded “the overlap between white nationalism, [white] separatism, and white supremacy is so extensive we really can’t make a meaningful distinction between them.”

“Our own review of hate figures and organizations – as defined by our Dangerous Individuals & Organizations policy – further revealed the overlap between white nationalism and separatism and white supremacy,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing the change. “Going forward, while people will still be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and separatism.”

Experts told the social media giant that white nationalism and white separatism are linked to violence, Facebook said.