- Facebook said it will shut down some anti-quarantine pages and groups
- Tech giant said it will ask state governments their lockdown guidelines and remove pages that plan to violate those health orders through in-person protests
- ‘Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook,’ a social network spokesperson said
- Protests that abide by social distancing guidelines will not be shut down
- Facebook says it has already removed protest messages in California, New Jersey and Nebraska
- Facebook said it’s currently attempting to get information from New York, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania regarding their policies on FB protest pages
- On Monday a massive protest took place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was organized on Facebook and the state says it hasn’t heard from Facebook
- The move by Facebook was met with severe backlash led by Donald Trump Jr
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Facebook says it will consult with state governments on their lockdown orders and will shut down pages planning anti-quarantine protests if the tech giant determines the gatherings violate those rules.
‘Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook,’ a spokesperson said on the social network’s policy in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook officials said they reached out to states individually to understand their lockdown orders then removed posts that violated those rules.
‘We reached out to state officials to understand the scope of their orders, not about removing specific protests on Facebook. We remove the posts when gatherings do not follow the health parameters established by the government and are therefore unlawful,’ a company spokesperson said to DailyMail.com.
Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk
