Facebook Blacklist: 4 SA Groups Labelled Hate and Crime Groups, Including the White Liberation Movement

• A snapshot of Facebook's secret blacklist of Dangerous Individuals and Organisations has been released to the public
• The blacklist contains approximately 4 000 groups and organisations from around the world, including four from South Africa
• South Africans were really surprised that the Afrikaner’s Weerstandbeweging (AWB) is still in existence

JOHANNESBURG - Four South African organisations that have appeared on Facebook's secret Dangerous Individuals and Organisations (DIO) blacklist have been deemed as either hate or crime groups.

The groups include the Afrikaner’s Weerstandbeweging (AWB), Ossewabrandwag, The White Liberation Movement and The Numbers Gang.

The AWB is the only group that is currently in existence while the White Liberation Movement was disbanded. The Numbers Gang has been classified as a crime group and the other three as hate groups.

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The Intercept published a snapshot of the secret blacklist, which was not made public by Facebook. According to the publication, Facebook's blacklist contains more than 4 400 people or groups, which include politicians, writers and charities.

The blacklist is used by Facebook to moderate what Facebook users can and cannot say on the social media platform.

According to MyBroadband, critics of Facebook's blacklist have described the strategy as an unaccountable system that disproportionately punishes certain groups. They believe that that list creates biases.

Scholars have been petitioning Facebook to release the blacklist to the public so that users don't find themselves in situations where they violate Facebook's regulations. Facebook restricts users from supporting or praising the groups on the blacklist.

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Organisations or groups who appear on the blacklist are prohibited from having an online presence on Facebook.

South Africans took to social media to react to Facebook's secret blacklist. Here's what they had to say:

@Philip78083121 said:

"Good, remove them once and for all, we condemn racism in any form."

@JShaka80 said:

"US Congress/EU has been pressing these giants of social media to deal swiftly with these evil groups; Corrupt ANC government must do the same and ensure that these groups don't gain their popularity through these platforms."

@Yahweh___Nissi said:

"Does the AWB still exist?? Is this a history lesson, or is this real-time? Strange how so close to elections AWB features ?? Instead of parties that are front runners in 2021 elections that have been corrupt for decades."

@Gobetse_M said:

"Facebook call them “Dangerous Individuals and Organisations” in South Africa the useless ANC government call them NGOs...bo Afriforum"

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@MurrayMam said:

"Bizarre:everyone should be allowed freedom of speech especially if it relates to farm murders, victimisation of farmers, land grabs which threaten food supply chain.Freedom of speech is an intrinsic right of each SA citizen. There are laws in place which restrict excesses.

FB goes offline this week, experts warn we should be logging out too

Briefly News previously reported that Facebook's social networking tools shut down on Monday for what many people felt was an immeasurable amount of time.

The six-hour shut-down, although relatively short, revealed some troubling realities about just how reliant human beings are on these social media apps.

Family and relationship expert, Ian Kerner says people have been using the apps "in different ways to distract ourselves, to escape, to connect, to cope with anxiety and stress."

Source: Briefly News