Facebook has removed racist and misogynistic content about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, according to The Grio.
Following her and President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, there's been a spike of hateful memes, posts and comments aimed at Harris. After BBC News reported the existence of a few anti-Harris hate groups to the social media giant, Facebook quickly deleted the accounts. Some of these groups had between 1,2000 to 4,000 members.
Facebook claims it flags 90 percent of hate speech before it is reported, but advocates and critics still call for more regulation to curb the bigger issue: the increased presence of extremist and racist groups on the platform. Some even goes as far to say Facebook wouldn't do anything about the trend if news media didn't report on it.
“Facebook’s removal of this content only after it’s been flagged to them by the media confirms that the rules and guidelines they establish are hollow because they put little to no effort into detection and enforcement,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said. “We are talking about the lowest of low-hanging fruit from a detection perspective. And yet, these escaped Facebook’s notice until flagged by a third party."
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