While Facebook spends so much time trying to “curb hate speech” and ensure neutrality, it seems to have missed one thing: ISIS terrorists using the platform for their own devices. According to CBS and The Telegraph, Facebook “inadvertently help[ed] Islamist extremists connect and recruit new members.”
Gregory Waters, a researcher from the Counter Extremism Project, told The Telegraph that “the failure to effectively police its platform has allowed Facebook to become a place where extensive (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS) supporting networks exist, propaganda is disseminated, people are radicalized, and new supporters are recruited.”
This report comes in the wake of the Cambridge Data Analytics scandal, as well as Facebook’s “failing to remove terrorist material from it’s platform.” According to J.M. Berger, this trend of connecting terrorists on social media is a “cause for concern.” However, it seems to be an algorithm that allows terrorists to connect via Facebook, and not a personal agenda. As Berger said, “If you’re part of a social network that supports ISIS, then once a person become friends with you -- Facebook is going to suggest that they all become friends.”
After the Media Research Center’s report on censorship was released, it is increasingly evident that Facebook should pay more attention to criminal and terrorist activity on its platform instead of finding ways to suppress conservative speech.
