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Tags: facebook | environmental groups | misinformation | ban | disinformation | election meddling

Facebook Bans Environmental Accounts, Some by Mistake

a woman looks down on her cell phone while walking under a facebook banner
(Niall Carson/AP)

By    |   Tuesday, 22 September 2020 04:48 PM EDT

Facebook has suspended accounts for multiple environment organizations despite launching a program pledging to stop climate change misinformation less than a week ago, The Guardian reported.

This past weekend, Greenpeace USA, Rainforest Action Network and Climate Hawks Vote, along with other groups were prevented from posting or sending messages on Facebook. Activists say hundreds of other individual accounts linked to indigenous, climate and social justice groups were also suspended for an alleged "intellectual property rights violation."

"Our systems mistakenly removed these accounts and content. They have since been restored and we've lifted any limits imposed on identified profiles," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

During a Facebook event in 2019, the suspended groups all protested U.S. investment firm KKR & Co for supporting the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The 670km-long gas line is being built in northern British Columbia, Canada.

"Videos of extreme violence, alt-right views and calls for violence by militias in Kenosha, Wisconsin, are allowed to persist on Facebook," Delee Nikal, a Wet'suwet'en community member. "Yet we are banned and receive threats for permanent removal, for posting an online petition."

Some of the accounts have now been unblocked, but others are still suspended.

The suspensions have angered activists who want to stop the pipeline because they said it will cut through the land of the Wet'suwet'en, a First Nations people.

"We're committed to tackling climate misinformation," Facebook said in a statement.

"As with all types of claims debunked by our fact-checkers, we reduce the distribution of these posts in News Feed and apply a warning label on top of these posts both on Facebook and Instagram so people understand that the content has been rated false," Facebook said.

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US
Facebook has suspended accounts for multiple environment organizations despite launching a program pledging to stop climate change misinformation less than a week ago, The Guardian reported.
facebook, environmental groups, misinformation, ban, disinformation, election meddling
280
2020-48-22
Tuesday, 22 September 2020 04:48 PM
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