Facebook is reported to have blocked more than 4,000 individual users and groups of organizations deemed dangerous such as white supremacists, military social movements, and suspected terrorists. This is Facebook's move to moderate content that could lead to violence offline.
However, Facebook did not specify who they were who had been blocked. Well, on Tuesday (19/10), The Intercept published a leaked list of individual users and organizational groups that were blocked on Facebook.
More than half of the list consists of suspected foreign terrorists, predominantly from the Middle East and South Asia.
Facebook has a three-tier system that defines the type of enforcement the company will do with regards to content. Terrorist groups, hate groups and criminal organizations are part of the strictest level.
The least restricted level, Tier 3, includes militarized social movements, which The Intercept says are mostly right-wing American anti-government militias that are almost entirely white.
Brian Fishman, Facebook's Policy Director for Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organizations said in a tweet that the version of the list published by The Intercept is not comprehensive as the list is constantly being updated.
"Defining and identifying Dangerous Organizations globally is very difficult. There is no hard and fast definition that everyone agrees on," he said.
Fishman also points out that terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda have hundreds of individual entities, many of which are listed as separate entries to facilitate law enforcement.
He says the Tier 1 list includes more than 250 white supremacist organizations. Facebook has faced pressure to be more transparent about its policies towards harmful individuals and organizations.
In January, the supervisory board tasked with reviewing the moderation of social network content overturned a decision to remove posts that the company said violated this policy provided the rules were not made clear enough to users.
The supervisory board also recommends that Facebook publish a list of dangerous organizations and individuals or create a list of examples.
Fishman said Facebook has not shared the list to limit legal risks, limit security risks and minimize opportunities for groups to circumvent the rules but Facebook is working to improve the policy.
