Facebook Bans British Far-Right Groups in Hate Speech Crackdown

The Facebook social network is determined to clean up. It has in fact given a strong signal last Thursday by excluding several British far-right groups in particular.

According to statements by one of the spokespersons of the American social network who confided in AFP by email, "individuals and organizations that spread hatred, attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of what they are, have no place on Facebook".

The official also cited some of the organizations that have been banned. These include the "far-right British National Party, Britain First, a violently anti-Islamic micro-formation, or the English Defence League, a group claiming to fight the Islamic threat and created by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, derived from the name of a famous hooligan".

These groups are accused of having "regularly violated" Facebook’s rules by making hateful statements. And the social network, which is increasingly criticized for the management of its content, is more than ever determined to remake its image. Will it succeed?