Weeks after a gunman broadcast live footage of his attack on a New Zealand mosque on Facebook, the social media giant says it’s banning all content praising, supporting and representing white nationalism and white separatism. Facebook has long restricted expressions of white supremacy on its platform but content related to white nationalism and white separatism had been allowed because “we were thinking about broader concepts of nationalism and separatism — things like American pride and Basque separatism, which are an important part of people’s identity,” the company explained in a Wednesday statement. This dialogue, the company said, had “confirmed that white nationalism and white separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.” As such, they “have no place on our services,” Facebook said. It can be difficult for AI to detect hate speech like implied white nationalism, too. For too long, Facebook has allowed hate speech ― and the violence that it can inspire ― to propagate on its platform,” he told Reuters.

Source: Huffington Post March 28, 2019 11:14 UTC