After it was slammed for not taking down supremacist and neo-Nazi pages and groups, American social media platform Facebook announced that it is banning content, praising white nationalism and white separatism, ABC reports. The new plan, expected to fight against hate speech on social media, will be entered into force next week, the same source added, quoting a Facebook blog post. «Over the past three months our conversations with members of civil society and academics who are experts in race relations around the world have confirmed that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups», Facebook said. Facebook was heavily criticized for refusing to delete the content of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups on its platform, following the Christchurch terror attacks. Citing a Counter Extremism Project report, media reported that Facebook has allowed these anti-Islam, homophobic and racist pages to freely publish content that was reported by several users for being «offensive». Responding to reports, the social media platform said that these groups did not violate its «community standards» and told users to «unfollow pages if they found them offensive». These pages are accused of spreading hatred and propaganda that «included racist and homophobic statements». The Independent indicates that some of these groups called non-whites «vermin» and gay people «degenerates», showing «images of Adolf Hitler and fascist symbols». Some of these pages were suspected of inspiring hate assaults and crimes, such as the New Zealand terror attack, which killed 50 people and injured 50 others. For the record, the Australian terrorist who opened fire on Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, published days after the attack a racist and Islamophobic manifesto on social media. In his manifesto, the self-declared white supremacist, explained why he committed the attacks.
