'Worrying calls for violence' prompt Facebook to remove rapidly growing pro-Trump group

By Elizabeth Culliford and Raphael Satter

 

FILE PHOTO: Counter-protesters, organized by Make the Road Action Nevada and PLAN Action, chant during a "Stop the Steal" protest by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump at the Clark County Election Center in North Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. November 4, 2020. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Thursday said it had taken down a rapidly growing group where some supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump posted violent rhetoric and baseless claims that Democrats were stealing the election.

 

On Thursday afternoon, the "Stop the Steal" group, which called for "boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote," was adding 1,000 new members every 10 seconds and had grown to 365,000 members in a single day.

 

"The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement.

 

She said the move was in line with the "exceptional measures" Facebook was taking during "this period of heightened tension."

 

The group's backers decried the deletion, saying they were organizing peaceful protests, that they had been working hard to police the comments, and that Facebook had given then no advance warning. Chris Barron, a spokesman for the group, said those on the left side of the political spectrum were also voicing concerns over the election being stolen and organizing for protests but did not face the same problems.

 

"If Facebook wants to become the arbiter of truth then they've got a lot of work to do," Barron said. In any case, "the election is over, so there's no election disinformation to be shared."

 

A review of a small number of comments posted to the group ahead of its deletion found no direct calls for violence, but its organizing premise - that Republican votes are being "nullified" by Democrats - has no basis in fact. For months, Trump and Republican allies have been laying the groundwork to cast doubt on the integrity of the U.S. election in case the president lost his re-election bid.

 

As election returns show a brightening picture for Trump's Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, and as U.S. broadcasters and other major media outlets continue to brush off Trump's premature claims of victory, the president and his supporters have taken to social media to try to turn the narrative around, floating conspiratorial theories using the hashtag #StopTheSteal.

 

But social media companies have been signaling less patience for election-related disinformation, something "Stop the Steal" group seems to have prepared for. Before Facebook deleted it, the group's organizers directed new members to an email sign-up page "in the event that social media censors this group."

 

Members appeared to be dispersing either to smaller lookalike groups or to more obscure social media services.

 

Paul Barrett, deputy director of New York University's Stern Center for Business and Human rights, praised the group's removal.

 

"The social media platforms can't allow themselves to be used to foment antidemocratic and potentially violent activity," Barrett said.

"Facebook was right to step in."

 

The deletion highlights the ongoing concern over Facbook's groups, which typically work as community forums for shared interests but which watchdog organizations and social media researchers have argued can be closed loops for hyper-partisan misinformation.

 

"Facebook has been enabling and amplifying the infrastructure that's now being used to attack our democratic process," said Arisha Hatch, executive director of the Color of Change PAC, the political action committee of one of the nation's largest online racial justice groups.

 

Facebook, which normally recommends groups to users that they may want to join based on their activity on the site, last week suspended these recommendations for political groups and new groups around the election.

 

The now-removed "Stop the Steal" group was run by the Trump action group Women for America First. The non-profit organized protests against COVID-19 restrictions and supported Trump during his impeachment hearing.

 

Barron said that the group's mission would go on, noting that Amy and Kylie Kremer, Women for America First's mother-daughter co-founders, would continue organizing demonstrations.

 

"Amy and Kylie were at a peaceful protest in Atlanta today," he said.

 

"They're on a plane headed to Michigan."

 

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England and Raphael Satter in Washington; Additional reporting by Paresh Dave in Oakland, California; Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, and Jack Stubbs in London; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-06

 

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Trump with his fake news about voter fraud is going to get fellow Americans killed.

Its time senior Republicans stepped in to put a stop to this. 

More examples of left wing bias from the Silicon Valley social media giants.????

26 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

Trump with his fake news about voter fraud is going to get fellow Americans killed.

Its time senior Republicans stepped in to put a stop to this. 

They allowed Trump to hijack the GOP,  now no Republican has the spine to stop him.

Ironic the biggest fraud on the planet is now alleging it.

If Americans do get killed, no doubt "good people" will have done it. Just like the felons he has pardoned.

A post with false or misleading information has been removed along with replies.  

 

 

56 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

More examples of left wing bias from the Silicon Valley social media giants.????

Your quite right....What we hear reported & what we see actually here in the US is often the opposite of what the left wing biased media reports

 

Here in the US what we are reading are "claims" of how dangerous "conservative" groups are & yet what we actually seeing are leftist groups running amuck

in protests burning private property & inciting rioting calling it their peaceful protests

 

Anyone who looks at actual recent events that DID happen know this

 

 

 

Personal comment removed.

 

Forum rule7.

57 minutes ago, meechai said:

Your quite right....What we hear reported & what we see actually here in the US is often the opposite of what the left wing biased media reports

 

Here in the US what we are reading are "claims" of how dangerous "conservative" groups are & yet what we actually seeing are leftist groups running amuck

in protests burning private property & inciting rioting calling it their peaceful protests

 

Anyone who looks at actual recent events that DID happen know this

 

 

 

AFAIK those protestors are not running around with guns, Trump supporters on video are the ones doing that. Perhaps you have short-term memory loss, remember the couple threatening a crowd with guns, when the crowd was on public property? Or the 17 yo kid wanting to shoot protestors, and carrying a semi-automatic to do so?

How dangerous are the lies Trump is spewing out on a daily basis? COVID is under control, the election is being stolen, etc. He's pouring fuel on the fire hoping to save his own skin.

22 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

AFAIK those protestors are not running around with guns, Trump supporters on video are the ones doing that. Perhaps you have short-term memory loss, remember the couple threatening a crowd with guns, when the crowd was on public property? Or the 17 yo kid wanting to shoot protestors, and carrying a semi-automatic to do so?

 

Well As Far As You Know does not count for facts here in the USA

 

You speak of guns but show no killings/injuries

 

I spoke of protests & read many cases of burned out/destroyed private property

 

I read of many police injured in the line of duty while trying to control these protests

 

The list goes on & on for what actually DID occur & which groups actually caused them

28 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

AFAIK those protestors are not running around with guns, Trump supporters on video are the ones doing that. Perhaps you have short-term memory loss, remember the couple threatening a crowd with guns, when the crowd was on public property? Or the 17 yo kid wanting to shoot protestors, and carrying a semi-automatic to do so?

How dangerous are the lies Trump is spewing out on a daily basis? COVID is under control, the election is being stolen, etc. He's pouring fuel on the fire hoping to save his own skin.

If you are referring to this couple the reports state it was private property with signs clearly marked No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/couple-guns-st-louis-mayor-home-344400

34 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

If you are referring to this couple the reports state it was private property with signs clearly marked No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/couple-guns-st-louis-mayor-home-344400

Off topic but it was not their property.

5 minutes ago, Sujo said:

Off topic but it was not their property.

Clearly you didn't read the link

A social media video showed Mark McCloskey and his 61-year-old wife standing outside their Renaissance palazzo-style home in the city's well-to-do Central West End neighborhood. He could be heard yelling while holding a long-barreled gun. His wife stood next to him with a handgun.

What is wrong with these people? 

 

What a sick world where lies are now so easily and readily accepted......I recall even as a kid, in the UK, if any minister was caught lying that would be the end of their career.....now they don't even bat an eyelid....in the US lying is the way forward.

1 hour ago, meechai said:

I read of many police injured in the line of duty while trying to control these protests

 

The list goes on & on for what actually DID occur & which groups actually caused them

 

You mean people like members of the Boogaloo Bois, such as Ivan Hunter whom "allegedly" pretended to be part of the BLM protests and opened fire on the Minneapolis Police station and then boasted about helping people set it on fire - after driving up from Texas!

 

Or perhaps his mate Steven Carillo in California that he boasted to about Minneapolis a couple of hours later and urged him on to target police stations who has "since been arrested for killing a Federal Protective Services Officer in Oakland, California, and for the fatal shooting of a sheriff’s deputy in Santa Cruz." 

 

Or perhaps another couple of his "Boogaloo Bois" buddies 30-year-old Michael Robert Solomon and 22-year-old Benjamin Ryan Teeter who were indicted on federal charges for allegedly attempting to provide weapons to Hamas.

 

Bet that bunch of fwits aren't who you where alluding to.

 

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10122427/ivan-hunter-boogaloo-bois-arrest-minneapolis-shooting

 

https://www.startribune.com/charges-boogaloo-bois-fired-on-mpls-precinct-shouted-justice-for-floyd/572843802/?refresh=true

3 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Trump with his fake news about voter fraud is going to get fellow Americans killed.

Its time senior Republicans stepped in to put a stop to this. 

But they won't. They'll continue to be afraid of him even after he leaves the white house. He can run again. 

29 minutes ago, Sujo said:

Off topic but it was not their property.

A gated community is not public property, the protesters has broken in.

 

A general law city has exclusive control over its city streets, and private citizens cannot restrict access to public roads; therefore, all roads in a gated community must be private roads.

 

1 hour ago, meechai said:

Well As Far As You Know does not count for facts here in the USA

 

You speak of guns but show no killings/injuries

 

I spoke of protests & read many cases of burned out/destroyed private property

 

I read of many police injured in the line of duty while trying to control these protests

 

The list goes on & on for what actually DID occur & which groups actually caused them

Perhaps you need to read the news reports of rightwing extremists committing acts of arson and property damage within this year’s protests.

56 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

Clearly you didn't read the link

A social media video showed Mark McCloskey and his 61-year-old wife standing outside their Renaissance palazzo-style home in the city's well-to-do Central West End neighborhood. He could be heard yelling while holding a long-barreled gun. His wife stood next to him with a handgun.

 

The protesters were on a private street in that housing complex. They were not on private property belonging to the couple who brandished the guns.

 

But that case is really off-topic to this particular thread. So it would be better to not go further afield in that particular direction.

 

49 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

Clearly you didn't read the link

A social media video showed Mark McCloskey and his 61-year-old wife standing outside their Renaissance palazzo-style home in the city's well-to-do Central West End neighborhood. He could be heard yelling while holding a long-barreled gun. His wife stood next to him with a handgun.

Again, no one was on their property.

36 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

But they won't. They'll continue to be afraid of him even after he leaves the white house. He can run again. 

But according to what trump supporters said about age he will be too old and senile so they wont vote for him. Or maybe they are full of it.

1 minute ago, Sujo said:

But according to what trump supporters said about age he will be too old and senile so they wont vote for him. Or maybe they are full of it.

In that case trump junior. Same same but different. 

Facebook is biased and whilst it was correct to take down a site promoting violence in general it takes down Republican supported sites and very few Democratic supported sites. 

4 hours ago, JonnyF said:

More examples of left wing bias from the Silicon Valley social media giants.????

You mean like Fox News calling Arizona for Biden early?

 

Supposedly left wing NBC is still calling AZ “too close to call”.

19 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

Facebook is biased and whilst it was correct to take down a site promoting violence in general it takes down Republican supported sites and very few Democratic supported sites. 

Well given the prolific growth of lunatic Qanon groups, is that surprising?

FORMER White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his War Room Pandemic podcast Thursday said that President Donald Trump should start his second term by beheading FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr Anthony Fauci. 

 

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1752419/trump-adviser-steve-bannon-fauci-fbi-wray-beheaded/

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

They'll continue to be afraid of him even after he leaves the white house. He can run again. 

Unless he gets so angry he stamps his his foot and falls into a hole in the ground. (That would make him *rumplestiltskin)

 

Wasn't there a leak that he's expecting a lot of legal cases incoming? Perhaps he'll finally get the discrediting he deserves (& in fact should have been subject to pre-2016. But facts about him which I personally thought made him unelectable, and had previously been reported in the media, gained no traction during the 2016 election.)

 

*insert initial to taste

7 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Trump with his fake news about voter fraud is going to get fellow Americans killed.

Its time senior Republicans stepped in to put a stop to this. 

They are too busy selling brown shirts and MAGA armbands, black gothic german letters on a red background.

This has all the signs of ending very badly for the United States' reputation which is already badly tarnished by the last 4 years.

1 minute ago, Jonnapat said:

This has all the signs of ending very badly for the United States' reputation which is already badly tarnished by the last 4 years.

You're absolutely right.

The incredible benefits of soft power that the USA cultivated since world War 2 have been permanently squandered by America's embrace of an isolationist  illiberal compromised by dictators like Putin buffoon.

This election could have helped but it didn't. 

It wasn't the overwhelming repudiation of the 45 movement like it needed to be.

His movement is far from dead. We're stuck with it.

9 minutes ago, Jonnapat said:

This has all the signs of ending very badly for the United States' reputation which is already badly tarnished by the last 4 years.

How so? Do you mean the election process or the Trump administration?