, Labour’s Shadow Digital, Culture, Media &
Sport Secretary, responding to the Center for Countering Digital
Hate identification of neo-Nazi accounts and the funding of
violence on Facebook, said:
"Facebook and Instagram must immediately remove the full network
of neo-Nazi accounts.
"This is yet another example of why Labour believes legislation
is urgently required to regulate social media companies so they
have clear responsibilities - in law - to prevent their products
from being used in this way because self-regulation has failed.
"The government has dragged its heels for too long and it is
abundantly clear that the long-awaited online harms legislation
cannot come soon enough."
Ends
Notes to Editors
· A Center For Countering Digital Hate investigation which
appeared in the Observer found that Facebook and Instagram are
hosting neo-Nazi networks with over 80,000 followers.
https://www.counterhate.co.uk/hatebook
· Facebook has removed just 12 of the 61 Facebook and Instagram
accounts identified by CCDH and flagged to them more than 24
hours ago
· Neo-Nazis are selling products through their Facebook and
Instagram pages to fund their violent activities in Ukraine.
· Facebook failed to act when these networks were first reported
to the two years ago, and its size has grown significantly since
then.
· These networks have real links to domestic violent extremists
apprehended in the US and UK, and appears to have brought one
far-right US group into its network
