Social media giants are purging Donald Trump supporters from their websites citing concerns over ‘violent’ protests against alleged electoral fraud.
Facebook banned the ‘Stop the Steal’ group on Thursday after it amassed more than 350,000 members and planned demonstrations across the United States.
Meanwhile Twitter slapped warnings on Fox News clips of Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham after they made the case that allegations of election rigging by the President should be adjudicated by courts.
‘Stop the Steal’ had a soaring membership when Mark Zuckerberg‘s staffers moved in to wipe it out, citing ‘worrying calls for violence from some members.’
One post had said: ‘Time to clean the guns, time to hit the streets,’ while another was of a cartoon figure holding a machete with the caption: ‘I reckon I’ve had enough of this sh*t.’
‘Stop the Steal’ had a soaring membership when Mark Zuckerberg’s staffers moved in to wipe it out on Thursday, citing ‘worrying calls for violence from some members’
Twitter slapped a warning on Fox News clips of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who were making the case that allegations of election rigging by the President should be adjudicated by courts
Facebook continues to allow countless Anarcho-communist factions of the Antifa group to proliferate across its pages
One post on the ‘Stop the Steal’ group said: ‘Time to clean the guns, time to hit the streets’
Amy Kremer co-chairs the group ‘Women for America First’ which set up the ‘Stop the Steal’ Facebook group. Kremer (right) is pictured with her daughter Kylie Jane Kremer and Ivanka Trump
Kylie Jane Kremer, one of the administrators of the ‘Stop the Steal’ group pictured at the White House to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court
None of the posts came from the administrators of the group, but they were enough to push Facebook into taking what it called ‘exceptional measures.’
The group was entirely eradicated because it was ‘creating real-world events.’
Meanwhile Facebook continues to allow countless groups of the Marxist Antifa and Black Lives Matter movements which have rioted across the US for months.
Antifascist Action Phoenix, a group with more than 4,000 followers, had a recent post which mocked the leader of the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio after he was stabbed last week.
‘Awwww so sad lol (laugh out loud),’ the post said while linking to another which referred to Tarrio as a ‘piece of trash, with more holes in him now than a sieve.’
Regarding its ban of ‘Stop the Steal,’ Facebook said: ‘In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group “Stop the Steal,” which was creating real-world events.
‘The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.’
Facebook said it will continue to watch for activity that violates its rules and will take action if it does.
Most of the posts on ‘Stop the Steal’ had focused on President Trump’s claims of election rigging and voter fraud in some of the hotly-contested states which have left the US election hanging by a thread.
The group was set-up by ‘Women for America First,’ a pro-Trump campaigning outfit which has a direct line to the White House.
Trump still refuses to concede the election to Joe Biden despite world leaders congratulating the Democrat candidate and the media dubbing him ‘president-elect.’
A Twitter account called the Center for Countering Digital Hate shared multiple screenshots from the ‘Stop the Steal’ group before it was shutdown.
The crusade against the pro-Trump group gained huge media traction and was re-tweeted by singer and actress Selena Gomez.
A video of Ted Cruz arguing for the courts to decide on the allegations was flagged by Twitter
Antifascist Action Phoenix, a group with more than 4,000 followers, had a recent post which mocked the leader of the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio after he was stabbed last week
The group was set-up by ‘Women for America First,’ a pro-Trump campaigning outfit which has a direct line to the White House
Not only did it draw attention to violent posts by members, but it was asking Facebook to intervene based on ‘disinformation.’
In the same way that Facebook has marked up Trump posts and Twitter has outright censored them, the Silicon Valley giants are concerned that people could act on the basis of false information.
On Sunday, Twitter flagged numerous tweets by the president as he continued to rail against the election result.
Two of those were from Fox News broadcasts, one of Sen. Cruz and the other of Sen. Graham.
‘This a contested election, the media doesn’t decide who wins elections,’ Sen. Graham told the broadcaster, before he went on to cite evidence of people voting using the details of people who were dead.
Sen. Cruz described similar reports which he referred to as ‘allegations’ and which he argued needed to be ‘examined.’
‘It’s hard to know what the facts are, it’s hard to know what the truth is,’ Cruz admitted. ‘Well, we have a process for ascertaining the truth, which is that you can go and present evidence and test it within a court of law.’
Each of the tweets was flagged with a link: ‘This claim about election fraud is disputed,’ which redirects users to news reports which counter the Senators’ arguments.
On Facebook, a new ‘Stop the Steal’ group has already amassed thousands of members.
The administrators have cautioned people to be careful about how they vent their frustrations and said they will remove anything that calls for violence, and said they were making plans to move the group to other, less-moderated platforms.
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which pressured Facebook to take down the group, said while it’s true that all this seems like a game of whack-a-mole, the moles are slowly learning their lesson.
‘By taking out the largest one, it sent a message to others,’ he said.
But Ahmed said it should not be so difficult to get Facebook to take action on such a large group calling for violence.
‘There is a systemic issue with Facebook groups being exploited by people spreading misinformation, hate and inciting violence,’ he said.
‘It’s a problem they have known about for a long time and they continue to fail to take proper action. It’s generally only when a lot of attention is placed on something that they act.’
By Thursday afternoon, Facebook had also banned the ‘stopthesteal’ hashtag.
Also on Thursday, Twitter banned an account used by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon.
The right-wing provocateur, who used the handle warroompandemic, had called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray on his talk show.