Facebook bans white nationalist and separatist content – CNET

Facebook on Wednesday said it’s changing its policies by banning white nationalist and white separatist content from its platform, according to a blog post.

“It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services,” Facebook said in the post.

The social network had already prohibited “hateful treatment of people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity or religion — and that has always included white supremacy.” But it hadn’t applied the same rationale to “expressions of white nationalism and separatism because we were thinking about broader concepts of nationalism and separatism — things like American pride and Basque separatism, which are an important part of people’s identity.”

But after consulting with experts over the past three months, it’s decided “white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.”

The company said people can still express pride in their ethnic heritage, but “praise or support” for white nationalism and separatism won’t be tolerated. The social media giant also plans to redirect users who try to search for content associated with the now-banned ideologies to Life After Hate, a nonprofit that helps individuals leave hate groups.

“Unfortunately, there will always be people who try to game our systems to spread hate. Our challenge is to stay ahead by continuing to improve our technologies, evolve our policies and work with experts who can bolster our own efforts,” Facebook said.

The new policy will be implemented next week.