For years, right-wing extremists have been using Facebook to attract new recruits and organize events and rallies. A few months before the November 5 elections, 20 new pro-Trump groups were created: the former president’s supporters say they are ready to take to the streets and man the polls.
“I’m looking for a group of people who realize the disastrous situation where our country is located”, we read on the Facebook group USA Militia We The People. “People who understand that civil war is upon us if Kamala is elected. Am I in the right place?”. It is normal to read similar messages on pro-Trump groups. There are those who present themselves as veteran militants “ready to rekindle the fighting spirit”, those who propose to organize themselves to “monitor and guard the ballot boxes” and those who want to take to the streets armed with an AR-15 to prepare for civil war, ready to “pull the trigger”. As they write on the page of Three Percenters of Kentucky: “We must have a place where all the patriots of all the States can go when the time comes.”
The November 5 elections have brought i Trump supporters, who say they are ready to fight in case of defeat. Far-right groups have been using Facebook to recruit new followers and organize for years. Just think of the attack on Capitol Hill. These extremist groups that incite violence do not follow Meta’s guidelines, yet as data that the Tech Transparency Project sent to Wired Us shows, the pages are growing. In fact, after January 6, 2021, 262 groups and 193 pages appeared on Facebook. In the last five months more than 20 pro-Trump groups.
Because Facebook has become the den of extremists
Groups are a valuable tool for extremists, they use them to organize, recruit and radicalize new members. And indeed Scot Seddon, Ap3 leader explained on Distributed Denial of Secrets: “We have always used Facebook, and it was our main weapon. It led us to where we are today. We must use the tools at our disposal to achieve our goals. Our aim is to build a network, expand as much as possible, reach the greatest number of patriots in our states who think like us and on whom we can rely on if the situation were to escalate.”
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“We know the extent to which Facebook allows extremist groups to attract new people down the rabbit hole and of radicalize them further,” he explained Jon Lewisresearcher at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, to Wired Us. “We should be concerned that organized domestic extremist groups can vent freely on platforms used by millions of Americans.”
Meta has a problem with pro-Trump groups
If so many extremist groups resist on Facebook there is a problem. In fact, Meta should block pages that violate its guidelines. The company explained to Wired Us that it carried out “strategic network disruptions” by removing 900 extremist groups, pages and accounts.
“The naysayers are always trying to find new ways to circumvent our policiesand that’s why we constantly strive to combat groups and accounts that violate our rules by investing heavily in people, technology, research and through partnerships. We will continue to remove any groups and accounts that violate our policies.”
Yet it is not enough. “Almost four years after the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, Facebook remains an important recruiting tool and organizing for militias like AP3, despite the introduction of policies banning them,” he explained Katie Pauldirector of the Tech Transparency Project. “How can Meta be expected to effectively counter extremists with militia backgrounds who foment political violence, when its own systems open up groups for them to gather in?”
