For years , activist and medium havesuppliedFacebook with a long card of white supremacist groups to direct , and to its credit , it ’s finally agitate a little ( emphasis on little ) . Last week , Facebookdeactivatednearly 200 account tied to the white supremacist chemical group the Proud Boys and the American Guard . Facebook is being proactive , and now it ’s chosen to go after … uh … skinhead . All skinhead , be they anti - fascist , anti - racist , or just ska fan .
Various outletshave reportedthat , in a sweeping Monday Nox foray , Facebook suspend hundreds of skinhead - consociate score . OneZeroreportsthat that let in vocalistClara Byrnefrom the ska / dub / reggae banding Dakka Shanks and British music journalist Guy Shankland . Journalist Garry Bushelltweeted yesterdaythat Facebook “ shut 100s of UK accounts with any contact to skinhead refinement . ” A redditorhypothesizedthat Facebook even freeze people who ’d simply liked or follow S.H.A.R.P. , Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice , and masses who followed streetpunk isthmus .
Facebook have shut 100s of UK accounts with any link to skinhead culture , include Neville Staple ’s ! They clearly know nothing about 2 - tint . If you judge hoi polloi purely by their dress & haircut is n’t that a preindication of dogmatism ? Perhaps they should shut themselves down .
Image: Neville Staple at Coachella, 2010 (Getty)
— Garry Bushell ( @GarryBushell)June 9 , 2020
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1270394698629292032
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1270380000248762368
Hey@facebookThis is one of the masses who ’s account you killed . Do your homework.#younggiftedandblackSkinhead Girl – Young , Gifted and Black : https://t.co / K0AkUZWc78via@trojanrecords
— Beth Arzy ( @BethArzy)June 9 , 2020
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1270375381217030144
Most notably , they deplatformed Neville Staple of The special , whose causa is a pure example of Facebook ’s misinterpretation of subculture . The Specials were foundational in the 2 flavour musical style , which , Pitchforkhas note , embraced diversity against a procession in white patriotism and draw an early skinhead watch over before racists co - opted the culture . “ Please look into matter before doing a general cull , ” Staple tweeted at Facebook yesterday . “ integrity carry through the nervure of me & @SugaryStaple plus all our 2Tone Ska biotic community ’s nervure ! ” Neville ’s wife , creative person Sugary Staple , wasalso suspend .
The Staples ’ accounts have since been reinstated . When expect by Gizmodo why they were removed , a Facebook spokesperson pointed to Vice President of Integrity ( Project Management ) Guy Rosen’safternoon tweet , say that skinhead - affiliated story were “ mistakenly logged out ” while trying to take away “ several web of bad actors this week . ” The company told Gizmodo that Neville Staple ’s profile page was one of those imply and apologized for the wrongdoing . They not elaborate further on how the Staples became involved in the networks of bad actors .
OneZero , which reexamine Facebook ’s communications , said that Facebook asked some users with deactivated accounts to share their photo ID , which it has latelystarted checkingin cases of suspectedinauthentic behavior . That let in evading enforcement under Facebook ’s Community Standards . Facebook has been overly blunt with the “ inauthentic behavior ” banhammer in the past . In 2018 , the companyremoved pagespromoting a legitimate anti-“Unite the Right 2.0″ exchange , which did indeed involve an unauthentic admin ( unbeknown to fellow arranger ) , but Facebook opted to toss the integral logical organizing endeavor that stem from it .
Facebook ’s internal , unprompted decision to direct skinheads says more about its political cowardice than a desire to wipe out dangerous groups . The company has , for year , suck up to political bullies , even makinginternal top - horizontal surface decisionsto continue propaganda on its political program to pacify conservatives . It ’s taken year for Facebook to de - platform the American Guard , whichwas seenbrandishing race warfare symbolic representation along with Trump patron in 2017 . And despite numerous alarms from medium and advocacy groups about pro - gun pages supporting an armed uprising , the companydecided last weekthat those can stay , but Facebook will just stop actively promoting them .
This mail has been updated to admit Facebook ’s argument .
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