Facebook may face consequences for boogaloo movement

[samplegirl]

with online platform
Jan 07, 2022 6:50pm EST by David Neiwert, Daily Kos Staff

The far-right “Boogaloo” civil-war movement—whose devotees comprised a significant portion of the so-called “Patriots” who besieged the Capitol last Jan. 6—may have largely faded from public view over the past year, but its followers continue to plot violence from the fringes. Just this past month, two “Boogaloo” devotees in Washington state were charged with making bombs targeted at law enforcement officers.

Its lingering presence, moreover, is stark evidence of the pernicious effect of social media platforms’ laissez-faire approach to such extremism, particularly on Facebook, where much of the “Boogaloo” movement gained traction in its formative years. Facebook (and its now-parent company Meta) has since made a public relations-driven effort to purge the movement from its platform, but the damage was already done—as the family of one of its victims is now contending in a lawsuit intended to hold the company accountable.

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/7/2073391/--Boogaloo-Bois-still-organizing-on-the-fringes-but-Facebook-faces-lawsuit-over-platforming-them

[samplegirl]

1. Believe this when I see it!

[Fullduplexxx]

2. It wont happen. fb will wheel in bags of cash and the family will drop the lawsuit

[Midnight Writer]

4. Facebook will bring in busloads of lawyers.

Charlie Peters of the small circulation but excellent magazine Washington Monthly told of the time he was sued by a corporation for a factual article he had published.

He agreed to a meeting. As he and his lawyer waited for the meeting to start, limousine after limousine pulled up, disgorging an army of immaculately dressed lawyers from top firms. Peters was told that if he lost the lawsuit, he would have to pay not just the settlement, but the legal expenses of all these high powered lawyers. His small business was already on the margins. This would sink the magazine he owned and operated.

The intimidation tactic worked. Peters settled, even though he was sure he was in the right.

[dwayneb]

3. "Consequences" for Facebook

That's pretty funny. Instead of 90 billion in revenue they will have 89.999999 billion in revenue after paying some legal fees, or paying off this lawsuit.

The idea that Facebook has any sort of morality is just a fantasy. They will chase any dollar fluttering in the breeze no matter how much blood is dripping from it.

When and if the Radical Right succeeds in installing an authoritarian state, believe me the vile leaders of Facebook/Meta will be right there to offer their service as the social media darlings of the Fascists.

[SYFROYH]

5. Its a tenuous connection at best.

[crickets]

6. Facebook should be held accountable. Likely it won't be, but it should.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/15/boogaloo-killing-facebook-dave-patrick-underwood-police

One hundred days before Dave Patrick Underwood was murdered on 29 May, a group of analysts who monitor online extremism concluded that an attack like the one that killed him was coming.

An anti-government movement intent on killing law enforcement officers had been growing rapidly on social media, the analysts at the Network Contagion Research Institute warned. [snip]

But several analysts who monitor extremism say that, when it comes to the growth of the Boogaloo movement, the single organization that could have made the most difference was Facebook, because Facebook was the primary platform where the Boogaloo movement was organizing in early 2020, often in plain sight. [snip]

By the time the social media company finally disrupted the networks of Boogaloo pages and groups on its platform in late June, some experts said, it was too late: the scattered men drawn to the idea of being soldiers in an insurgency against the American government had already connected with each other directly.

“There was a moment in time where you could have nipped this in the bud,” Friedfeld said. “Would it have stopped it entirely? No. But it would have made it harder for these networks to cohere.”