In some ways, social media has helped Black Lives Matter simply by making it possible for victims of police violence to be heard. Many of the protests being held around the country are being organized in Facebook groups and Twitter threads, and social media has been helpful in creating more accountability for the police. Facebook could have responded to those findings by shutting off groups recommendations entirely, or pausing them until it could be certain the problem had been fixed. As a result, Facebook groups continue to be useful for violent extremists. And although Facebook has said it would exclude boogaloo groups from recommendations, they’re still appearing in plenty of people’s feeds.

Source: New York Times June 19, 2020 16:42 UTC