Facebook begins Europe-wide campaign against extremist posts

Four months after Facebook agreed to work with the German government to fight anti-refugee hate speech, the social networking giant is delivering on its pledge.

The initiative is a partnership between Facebook, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. “With extremism damaging lives and societies around the world, challenging those voices has never been more important”, she said. The company has divided its mission against xenophobic expressions into three major steps: (i) to support European NGOs to counter hate speech and racism including online social media, (ii) to develop best practices to counter the spread of hatred, and (iii) to seek support from universities and academic institutions in the research and development domain.

The social network launched on Monday in Berlin its Online Civil Courage Initiative, which is created to stamp out hateful rhetoric within its own walls, as well as influence the wider Internet.

In one of the first posts on the group’s Facebook page, the OCCI has said: “Take a moment to share your story or idea supporting counter speech, with the goal of combatting online extremism and hate speech”.

Germany took in about 1.1 million migrants in 2015, giving haters the more license to vent their xenophobic character.

According to Reuters, the Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has ruled that Facebook’s “Friend Finder” service – which, as the title states, allows users to locate co-workers, friends and even import email contacts and send friend requests – to be unlawful.

The Online Civil Courage initiative is the latest of various efforts to prevent the facilitation of online extremism and hate on social media.

“With this new initiative, we can better understand and respond to the challenges of extremist speech on the Internet”, said Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, while announcing the initiative in Berlin. “Love is louder than hate”.