Facebook's Failure to Remove 'Kenosha Guard' Militia Page an 'Operational Mistake': Zuckerberg

The page and event listing violated Facebook's policies and should have been removed after numerous complaints.

By Reuters | Updated: 29 August 2020 10:44 IST

Facebook's Failure to Remove 'Kenosha Guard' Militia Page an 'Operational Mistake': Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video publicly to took responsibility and faulted his company

Highlights

Facebook removed 'Kenosha Guard' page a day after the shooting on Tuesday
Zuckerberg said it was "largely an operational mistake"
Facebook would continue to evolve its policies, the CEO said

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg took responsibility and faulted his company for not removing the page and event for a militia group before two people were killed at a protest in Kenosha, saying it was "largely an operational mistake".

The page and event listing violated Facebook's policies and should have been removed after numerous complaints were received about the group's violent nature, Zuckerberg said in a video to employees that he posted publicly on his Facebook profile.

The social media company removed the page for 'Kenosha Guard', and an event listing for 'Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property' a day after the shooting on Tuesday.

Facebook Pushes for Data Portability Legislation Ahead of US FTC Hearing

Two people were killed during protests in Kenosha that broke out in response to the police shooting of a Black man earlier this week.

"The contractors and reviewers who the initial complaints were funnelled to basically didn't pick this up," Zuckerberg said. "And on second review, doing it more sensitively, the team that's responsible for dangerous organisations recognised that this violated the policies and we took it down."

Zuckerberg said there was no evidence the person charged with the shooting followed the Kenosha Guard page, but added that the company will continue to evolve its policies for identifying potentially dangerous organisations.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

In 2020, will WhatsApp get the killer feature that every Indian is waiting for? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.