The big house cleaning continues on social networks. Under pressure to better purge its platform of racist content and movements, Facebook said on Tuesday June 30 that it had banished far-right American groups from the Boogaloo movement, which "Actively seek to commit violence", according to a press release.
Followers of this eclectic, heavily armed movement have disrupted recent anti-racist protests in the United States and have worried American authorities since one of them killed two police officers in California in early June. The social media giant ranked him Tuesday in the category "Dangerous individuals and organizations".
"As a result, this violent network is banned from being on our platform and we will remove all content that supports, promotes, or represents it. He actively promotes violence against civilians, law enforcement, government and institutions. "
Facebook thus removed 220 accounts, but also 95 Instagram accounts, 28 pages and 106 groups "Who currently constitute the network", as well as 400 other groups and over 100 pages that hosted similar content.
A movement identified since 2012
Several demonstrations against systemic racism, organized in reaction to the death of George Floyd, an African-American killed by a white police officer, were marked by arrests of militants of this group, in possession of Molotov cocktails.
The term Boogaloo, which designates an Afro-Cuban musical current, has been used for several years on social networks in reference to a new civil war. The movement, which is neither very organized nor very united, includes anti-government and pro-gun activists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
They communicate through social networks. In a study released in April, the Tech Transparency Project counted 125 groups claiming to boogaloo on Facebook, with tens of thousands of subscribers discussing weapons, explosives and tactics to attack the authorities.
A member of the movement was arrested on April 11 in Texas after posting a video on social media announcing that he was going to ambush and kill a police officer. Facebook says it spotted the first elements of this movement in 2012, but only followed it closely since 2019.
"We expect people from this network to try to come back to our platform by adopting a new terminology", said the Californian group, promising to monitor these potential attempts.
