Study from Whistleblower Organization Claims Facebook Inadvertently Creates Terror Content

A study released recently by the National Whistleblowers Center offers detail into the activity of terrorist groups on Facebook. It finds that the social network could be accidentally assisting in the generation of terrorist content.

The study was conducted over the course of five months and involved the analysis of more than 3,000 people known to have connections to terrorist organizations worldwide. Analysts found that members of ISIS and al-Qaeda are openly using the platform to network with one another.

Use of Facebook for terror purposes

Beyond simply providing members of these terrorist cells with a platform on which they can network, Facebook has other feature that are unwittingly assisting in the creation of terror-related content. For example, one “local business” page for al-Qaeda had thousands of likes, and its auto-generated “memories” video and content can contain terror-related information.

The study also found Facebook has done little to combat the problem, characterizing the social media company’s efforts to stamp out terror-related usage of its platforms as “weak and ineffectual.”

For its part, Facebook claims to be removing terror-related content at higher success rates than a couple years ago and says it has invested in better technology for the monitoring and removal of this type of content. Still, the whistleblower has a petition pending with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging Facebook is breaking the law for misrepresenting shareholders and the public with these characterizations of its success and efforts.

If you are in need of legal counsel before serving as a whistleblower, speak with an experienced attorney at Kardell Law Group right away.