Facebook ran ads on searches for white supremacist groups, report finds - The Verge
A study by the Tech Transparency Project found more than 100 white supremacist pages and groups on Facebook. In some cases, Facebook profited from the groups’ presence by running ads in searches for the organizations.
Facebook served ads on searches related to white supremacist groups, despite a ban on such content on the platform, according to a report by the Tech Transparency Project.
The report, which was first covered by The Washington Post, identified 119 Facebook pages and 20 Facebook groups affiliated with white supremacist organizations on the platform. Researchers searched Facebook for 226 designated hate groups or dangerous organizations using sources like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League, and even Facebook itself, and found more than a third had a presence on the platform.
The study found that despite Facebook’s insistence that the company doesn’t profit from hateful content, ads appeared on 40 percent of the queries for the groups.
The white supremacist pages identified by the report include two dozen that were auto-generated by Facebook. The platform automatically creates pages when users list interests, workplaces, or businesses without an existing page. The issue of auto-generated white supremacist business pages was previously raised in a 2020 analysis, also by the Tech Transparency Project. Among the auto-generated pages identified by the 2022 report are “Pen1 Death Squad,” shorthand for a white supremacist gang.
Meta spokesperson Dani Lever says 270 groups designated by the company as white supremacist organizations are banned from Facebook, and that it invests in technology, staff, and research to keep platforms safe.
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