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The Intercept Reveals Facebook's Secret Blacklist of 'Dangerous Individuals and Organizations' (theintercept.com) 71

Posted by BeauHD from the no-longer-secret dept.
Sam Biddle writes via The Intercept: To ward off accusations that it helps terrorists spread propaganda, Facebook has for many years barred users from speaking freely about people and groups it says promote violence. The restrictions appear to trace back to 2012, when in the face of growing alarm in Congress and the United Nations (PDF) about online terrorist recruiting, Facebook added to its Community Standards a ban on "organizations with a record of terrorist or violent criminal activity." This modest rule has since ballooned into what's known as the Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, a sweeping set of restrictions on what Facebook's nearly 3 billion users can say about an enormous and ever-growing roster of entities deemed beyond the pale. [...] The Intercept has reviewed a snapshot of the full DIO list and is today publishing a reproduction of the material in its entirety, with only minor redactions and edits to improve clarity. It is also publishing an associated policy document, created to help moderators decide what posts to delete and what users to punish.

The list and associated rules appear to be a clear embodiment of American anxieties, political concerns, and foreign policy values since 9/11, experts said, even though the DIO policy is meant to protect all Facebook users and applies to those who reside outside of the United States (the vast majority). Nearly everyone and everything on the list is considered a foe or threat by America or its allies: Over half of it consists of alleged foreign terrorists, free discussion of which is subject to Facebook's harshest censorship. The DIO policy and blacklist also place far looser prohibitions on commentary about predominately white anti-government militias than on groups and individuals listed as terrorists, who are predominately Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Muslim, or those said to be part of violent criminal enterprises, who are predominantly Black and Latino, the experts said.

The materials show Facebook offers "an iron fist for some communities and more of a measured hand for others," said Angel Diaz, a lecturer at the UCLA School of Law who has researched and written on the impact of Facebook's moderation policies on marginalized communities. Facebook's policy director for counterterrorism and dangerous organizations, Brian Fishman, said in a written statement that the company keeps the list secret because "[t]his is an adversarial space, so we try to be as transparent as possible, while also prioritizing security, limiting legal risks and preventing opportunities for groups to get around our rules." He added, "We don't want terrorists, hate groups or criminal organizations on our platform, which is why we ban them and remove content that praises, represents or supports them. A team of more than 350 specialists at Facebook is focused on stopping these organizations and assessing emerging threats. We currently ban thousands of organizations, including over 250 white supremacist groups at the highest tiers of our policies, and we regularly update our policies and organizations who qualify to be banned."
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The Intercept Reveals Facebook's Secret Blacklist of 'Dangerous Individuals and Organizations' More

The Intercept Reveals Facebook's Secret Blacklist of 'Dangerous Individuals and Organizations'

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  • you naughty boy.

  • This was not unexpected at all. Though such lists should allow for public discourse, to ensure a rogue actor cannot misuse them

  • Not on that list but no linky (Score:3)

    by thogard ( 43403 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @07:12PM (#61886073) Homepage

    People can't link to things on my abnormal.com web site on Facebook because of "community standards". It has been blocked for a few years and I have no idea why it is blocked.

  • Looks like the list is mostly Islamists, but they throw in a few anti-Islamists like Tommy Robinson - to appear balanced?
    Tommy is there for his EDL role, but he quit, claiming they had become violent and too extreme.

    I'd not heard of the guy until he was secretly imprisoned in the UK:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

    Then saw his address to the Oxford Union, which painted a very different picture to the hate-filled monster portrayed by elements of the UK media:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • So he's no longer a violent racist and is now just a racist. Positive White Notionalism, right?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      If it was supposed to be a secret list, the appearance of balance was irrelevant to its construction.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Appearance of balance is relevant to the conclusion because while the list is secret, public actions routinely done based on the list are not.

      • It's not secret to everyone. The appearance of balance may still be sought in order to please someone internal at Facebook (or organizations it's allied with for these purposes, like SPLC) who has to give it the OK.

    • All of the islamic groups and individual are on the list because they're on the US' Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        That's what I noticed as well. List of islamists is a copy pasta of SDGT, and SDGT is literally cited as a source. Whereas the "hate speech" list has no source listed. Which suggests that this list is made and managed by facebook itself rather than an official state entity.

        • There are legal consequences for providing a platform to those officially designated SGDT by the US govt, not so much for the highly subjective "Hate Speech" label. I notice Louis Farrakhan or the NOI made the "hate" cut.

    • The document also lists a good segment of the american boogaloo/gravy seals/yallqueda groups.
  • Fecebook is shit. The worst of the shit is flushed out, not with water but more shit. The system works, they make money and life goes on but Fecebook will forever be comprised of shit flushing out shit.

  • Because words are only dangerous to lawyers, politicians, cops, and FORTH programmers.

    Which everyone else rightly ignores.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Because words are only dangerous to lawyers, politicians, cops, and FORTH programmers.

      This would be entirely true in a world without gullible, hotheaded people.

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Samantha Wright ( 1324923 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @08:41PM (#61886243) Homepage Journal

      Demagoguery and propaganda are as old as language itself. You live in a fantasy world, which was invented by yellow journalists in the US following the landmark NYT v. Sullivan [wikipedia.org]. No one outside your country believes what you're saying, many people inside your country have directly experienced the destruction caused by literal torch-carrying mobs, and just a few short decades ago, even the sorely overused catch-all of "First Amendment rights" was more or less theoretical, as people were generally accountable for what they published and broadcasted.

      I can't tell if you're "Uncle Dook" or "Nick_Angel" on Steam, based on the "Swoopers" group you have set as your Slashdot homepage link, but if it's the former, I sorely recommend you actually read what Hunter S. Thompson wrote rather than just quoting the opening monologue of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in as profile text. He has quite a lot to say about the erosion of human decency in the twentieth century, especially as a result of the very same fascist praxis which now consumes Facebook.

      • Whoa! I stand, spanked!

        I would really, really like to smoke some kind-bud with you. As long as there are no large hunting knives around.

        Sincerely,

        Al Gore

  • Why is the CCP not on the list? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @08:06PM (#61886191)

    The Chinese Communist Party may be the largest and most dangerous hate group on the planet. Just ask Uyghurs, Falun Gong, Christians and Hong Kong freedom fighters or anyone that is unable to travel because their social score is too low.

    • But China is mostly capitalist now, so it's your own side that's oppressing the nutters and secessionists.

      • No, they aren’t. You can’t have capitalism without democracy, and China is a dictatorship.
      • Claiming that China is "capitalist" sounds like criticism from a utopian who wants to tell us the reason for all of China's ails are the capitalist running dogs and reactionaries. China is not liberal and will never liberalize under the CCP. I'd wager that you'd be hard press to tell folks what you actually like about liberalism, or what you don't like about communism.
    • However, CCC is..

      Car Care Center, Terror, Affiliated with Hezbollah

      Their detailing is outstanding, though...

  • ... it looks like anyone named "Al" is in trouble.

  • Ridiculous (Score:3)

    by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Wednesday October 13, 2021 @06:34AM (#61887151) Journal
    "The DIO policy and blacklist also place far looser prohibitions on commentary about..."

    The drumroll please.

    'predominately white'

    oh, so we have another bigot in the house. Maybe they'll finally be recognized as hate on the FB list after this article.

    'anti-government militias than on groups and individuals listed as terrorists'

    I should hope so. In the United States the militia is essentially every able bodied person (technically the law says male but the protection clause would extend it to female as well). Keeping yourself well regulated and keeping your arms well regulated is a civic duty like voting. There is a widespread myth that militia were replaced by national guard who are an unrelated military reserve group. These groups, the NRA and military veterans are the only reason we have any well regulated citizen militia at all.

    As for anti-government. That is misleading. The sovereign of the United States is the people and not the administrative government. This might seem superficially similar to other constitutional democracies but there are some important distinctions.

    * Treason is either befriending a foreign element against the interests of the people OR the government acting against the people.
    * Criticism and opposition to actions of government which infringe upon liberty is a civic duty.
    * Our rights as sovereign are innate, the Constitution is empowered by us and grants limited powers with some explicit prohibitions on the state/states. This is distinct from other ideas of democracy wherein rights derive from the Constitution.

    Groups like these while superficially appearing similar to rebel guerilla groups are actually usually actually composed of ardent patriots. They do not engage in terrorist activities.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kunwon1 ( 795332 )
      You're a loon

    • There is a widespread myth that militia were replaced by national guard who are an unrelated military reserve group.

      The closest thing to a militia in modern times is the draft.

      • The draft was just calling up the militia. The militia might be neglected but they are still the only constitutionally permitted domestic ground forces and who did all the fighting in the civil war. The federal army isn't supposed to exist except as an aggregation of militia forces after a congressional declaration of war.

        The 'well regulated' militia in modern times is the thousands of organized volunteer militia groups throughout the country, including the various veteran driven survival/zombie hunter grou
  • is to belong to a certain group. If you do you can literally advocate genocide against repressed groups of people, and yet you won't get banned.
  • If it were being honest, it should be.

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