Anti-government far-right groups supporting Donald Trump are promoting recruitment and ballot box monitoring on Facebook, while Facebook claims to be 'deleting groups that violate policies,' but points out that pages for related organizations are being automatically created
In the 2020 US presidential election, an incident occurred in January 2021 in which demonstrators supporting Donald Trump
Pro-Trump Militias Are Threatening the Election—and Meta Lets Them | The New Republic
https://newrepublic.com/post/187669/meta-facebook-donald-trump-militias-election
Facebook Is Auto-Generating Militia Group Pages as Extremists Continue to Organize in Plain Sight : r/politics
In the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, demonstrators occupied the building for several hours, resulting in the deaths of five people, including demonstrators and police officers. The Tech Transparency Project (TTP) , a research institute on technology company practices, pointed out that 'the attack on the US Capitol was organized on Facebook for months.'
The attack on the Capitol by extremists was 'organized on Facebook for months' - GIGAZINE
Following the incident, pro-Trump anti-government groups came under scrutiny from various agencies. Some groups removed the word 'militia' from their websites and replaced them with indirect names such as 'civilian guard' and 'patriot group,' in an attempt to distance themselves from their activities.
But as attention on the riots waned, these groups became active again. The TTP found 262 active Facebook groups and 193 anti-government websites linked to pro-Trump extremist organizations, some of which were created after May 2024, as the presidential election drew near.
These groups are strengthening their ties as the election approaches. 'If Kamala Harris becomes president, a civil war will break out in the United States. We are looking for people who understand the dire situation our country is in,' said an anti-government group called USA Militia We The People.
In addition, a Wisconsin-based 'patriot group' is encouraging the installation of small cameras near ballot boxes for monitoring. Also, a group called 'The Party of Trump,' which has 171,000 members, has proposed that 'Trump supporters will carry assault rifles to monitor ballot boxes.' In response to these activities, the Department of Homeland Security has reportedly warned law enforcement agencies that 'domestic extremists may attempt to disrupt or attack voting.'
Meta reported, 'These anti-government groups are always finding new ways to circumvent our policies, so we are continually cracking down on violating groups and accounts by investing heavily in people, technology, research, and partnerships. In fact, in 2020, Meta removed groups, pages, and accounts related to the largest anti-government group, American Patriots Three Percent (AP3), as a 'militarized social movement' and 'armed militia group.'
However, according to overseas media Wired, in May 2024, Facebook automatically created a page for AP3's Arizona branch, and in June 2024, it automatically created a page for the 'AP3 Training Site.' On the other hand, the description of the AP3 training site states, 'This unofficial page was automatically created because Facebook users expressed interest in this location or business. Facebook is not affiliated with or endorsed by the AP3 training site.'
'We're on Facebook all the time. Facebook is our biggest weapon. Facebook is what got us to where we are today. Our goal is to use Facebook to build and expand our network and reach more like-minded patriots,' AP3 leader Scott Seddon
Katie Paul, director of TTP, said, 'Although Facebook has policies that prohibit militia groups like AP3, Facebook remains an important recruiting and organizing tool for them, even nearly four years after the January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.' 'Meta claims to be 'effective in blocking extremists involved in political violence,' but can we trust a company that automatically creates business pages for anti-government groups?' she said.
'We should be concerned about the fact that actual organized domestic extremist groups have free access to Facebook, which is available to millions of Americans,' said John Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University.
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