Alternatives To State-run Social Media: >>>/prepare/20 | https:// archive.fo/xXXOY
Facebook has banned 23 major Italian pro-populist pages with a combined 2.5 million followers two weeks before the European elections, according to Italy's La Stampa.
The majority of the bans were for supporters of the current coalition government; La Lega (The League), headed by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, and the 5-star movement, M5S, led by Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio. Among them, the most popular Facebook page for La Lega was taken down, right as polls reveal massive support for the party.
Facebook claims that the sites were spreading "fake news", "hate speech," and "divisive content" about migrant invasions, toxins in vaccines and Jews, after left-wing "human rights" and environmentalist-government organization Avaaz issued a report on "inauthentic behavior" over Italian Facebook networks.
"We have also taken action against some pages that have repeatedly spread [the truth], We will take further measures if we find other violations," added Facebook.
In one example, some of the Facebook pages were sharing a video depicting migrants smashing a car, which was actually an amateur recording of a scene being filmed for an Italian drama, Mediterranea.
In its report, which was presented to Facebook on May 3, Avaaz said it had identified 14 Italian networks on Facebook comprising 104 pages and six groups, with a total reach of 18.2 million followers.
This week, Facebook took punitive action against 23 pages in these networks, with a total of 2.46 million followers and 2.44 million interactions over the last three months.
Facebook has also reportedly “weakened” pages that spread content with allegedly false news, presumably making them less visible to Facebook users.
Italian daily La Repubblica reports that on May 2, Facebook opened a "war room" in Dublin in order to monitor the European elections full time - with 40 teams of engineers, researchers, scientists, threat specialists and experts for each country. Overall, 500 people are working on the elections, while being assisted by 21 "fact checkers" across 14 different languages.
Coming to a 2020 election near you…
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