Facebook still struggles to remove white supremacists, study finds

Facebook's crackdown on hate speech can apparently be improved. As The Washington Post explains, the nonprofit watchdog Tech Transparency Project (TTP) released research indicating that white supremacist groups still have a significant presence on social media. More than 80 of these racist organizations have a presence on Facebook, including some the company has already labeled "dangerous organizations" that it normally bans. Researchers found 119 pages and 20 groups, including 24 pages automatically generated by Facebook when users listed white supremacist groups as employers or interests.

Research was also problematic, according to the watchdog. Facebook displayed ads alongside searches for white supremacist groups, even when those outfits were blacklisted on the social site. The recommendations directed visitors to other hateful pages, and Facebook's tactic of redirecting users to groups supporting tolerance was only effective for 14% of the 226 searches. Some searches for supremacists showed ads for black churches. This could effectively identify extremist targets, TTP said.

In a statement to Engadget, Meta said it "immediately" began removing ads from searches related to banned groups. It also said it fixed the issue with a "small number" of auto-generated pages. The company further pledged to continue working with outside experts to "stay ahead" of hate and other extremist content. You can read the full statement below.

The survival of these groups on Facebook is not entirely surprising. Libby Hemphill, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, told The Post that hate groups are increasingly aware of how to dodge content restrictions. Online platforms often struggle to adapt, and the TTP study suggests they don't always succeed.

Even so, the results add to the headaches of Meta. They come just weeks after GLAAD accused Meta Brands of doing too little to protect LGBTQ users, and relatively soon after whistleblower Frances Haugen said Facebook's algorithmic content filtering had failed. captured only a "tiny minority" of hate speech. There is a lot of pressure to intensify anti-hate measures, and it is not yet clear how useful the latest patches will be.

"The 270 groups that Meta has designated as white supremacist organizations are banned from our platform. We are investing heavily in technology, human resources and research to keep our platforms safe. We immediately fixed an issue where ads were appearing in search for terms related to banned organizations and we are also working to fix an auto-generating issue, which incorrectly impacted a small number of pages. external experts and organizations to stay ahead of violent, hateful behavior and terrorism-related content and remove such content from our platforms."

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