By Jeff Horwitz and Sam Schechner
Facebook Inc. took down a fast-growing group on its platform
called "Stop the Steal" that was organizing protests of vote counts
around the country, in one of the social-media giant's most
aggressive moves yet to police online activity over the election
results.
The group had grown to more than 361,000 members within 24 hours
and was devoted to protesting the administration of the election,
which the organizers allege has been marred by widespread vote
fraud. While President Trump has repeatedly made the same claim,
news organizations and fact-checking groups have found no support
for it to date. The Trump administration's Cyber and Infrastructure
Security Agency tweeted earlier Thursday about the robust
safeguards in place to ensure a fair and accurate election.
Facebook's decision to remove the group was "in line with the
exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of
heightened tension," according to a spokesman who said that "Stop
the Steal" was "creating real-world events."
"The group was organized around the delegitimization of the
election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some
members of the group," he said.
A pro-Trump organization called "Women for America First" had
created and operated the Facebook group, according to its home page
before it was deactivated.
"Facebook just silenced over 365,000 American voices," wrote
Cindy Pfingston Chafian, one of the group's administrators, in a
post on Twitter. "We were organizing people to go to the states to
oversee election counting and for rallies and they silenced
us!!"
Ms. Chafian and two other people listed as the top
administrators or moderators of the group didn't immediately
respond to requests for comment.
Facebook's decision to take down the group is likely to feed
into Republicans' long-running claims that the company censors
conservative speech. Minutes after the takedown, the president's
son Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a post responding to the move that
read in part, "Is this how social media treated Black Lives Matter
protesters?"
Facebook groups have been used this week to organize tense
real-world protests at vote counting facilities, with angry crowds
of Trump supporters in Detroit and Phoenix questioning the
integrity of the count and election officials beefing up
security.
Officials of both parties, including state and federal election
officials, have sought to assure the public that ballot counting is
a critical part of the democratic process and is unfolding
legitimately, after issuing warnings for months that tallying a
surge of mail-in votes could take time. The Trump campaign has
filed lawsuits this week disputing the process, in some cases
seeking to halt vote counts under way.
Facebook had previously said it would give people involved in
administering the election heightened protections on its platform,
akin to those provided to minority groups targeted by hate
speech.
The company took down a private group earlier this week with
more than 79,000 members called "Stand Up Michigan to Unlock
Michigan" -- organized to oppose pandemic-related lockdown measures
-- that more recently encouraged people to protest the ballot
counting process in Detroit, according to screenshots of posts in
the group seen by The Wall Street Journal. The group's involvement
in organizing the protest was earlier reported by NBC News.
That group was removed for similar reasons as "Stop the Steal."
A Facebook spokesman cited "potential offline harm" and said the
company was in contact with local authorities in Detroit.
Some "Stop the Steal" members seemed aware the group might be
targeted for enforcement. In one message, posted less than an hour
before the group was shut down, a member urged others to join a
group chat on the messaging app Telegram out of fear of a Facebook
crackdown. In the minutes before the group was removed, it was
adding new members at a rate of more than 25,000 people an
hour.
Shutting down "Stop the Steal" was heavily discussed inside
Facebook before its action Thursday, according to people familiar
with the matter, one of whom said those internal debates were
elevated to the highest levels of the company.
The Democratic National Committee's team that monitors
disinformation also flagged the Facebook group to the social-media
giant this week, a person familiar with the matter said. The team
highlighted the group's posts that contained misinformation and
questioned why it remained up, the person said.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that concerns
around election-related violence justify a tighter rein on speech
than the company prefers but that he imposes restrictions
reluctantly.
"In times of social turmoil, our impulse is often to pull back
on free expression," Mr. Zuckerberg said in a speech last year. "I
believe in giving people a voice because, at the end of the day, I
believe in people."
Twitter has also been monitoring the hashtag #StopTheSteal and
related tweets on its platform since Tuesday morning, the
social-media company said. It has taken action on some messages
that violate its rules against interfering in elections, he
said.
When Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and supporter
of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory who was elected this week
to the U.S. House, tweeted Wednesday morning, "We are going to STOP
THE STEAL!" with the hashtag #STOPTHESTEAL, Twitter added a label
saying, "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is
disputed and might be misleading."
Facebook employees have long voiced concerns about the
platform's tools and features, including Facebook groups, being
used to spark violence. Some violent clashes in Kenosha, Wis., were
organized over Facebook earlier this week.
Facebook executives have put in reserve "break-glass" measures
to slow down discussion on the platform, in case of real-world
violence around the election, the Journal previously reported. The
company developed those emergency measures initially for what it
calls "at-risk" countries like Myanmar and would deploy them only
under dire circumstances, people familiar with the matter said
previously.
In addition to Ms. Chafian, two other organizers of the "Stop
the Steal" group, Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence, are listed
on Facebook as executives of a conservative media site called
America First Projects.
Ms. Lawrence's Facebook profile says she previously worked as
communications director for We Build the Wall Inc., a charity that
U.S. prosecutors alleged in August was part of a scheme to siphon
hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors, leading to multiple
arrests.
Mr. Stockton wrote in a post on America First Projects that at
the time of the arrests, he and Ms. Lawrence were traveling in an
RV in Nevada when "heavily armed federal law enforcement officers"
seized their cellphones in a predawn raid and served them with
grand-jury subpoenas. "Jen and I would like to commend the officers
who executed the warrant for their fair and reasonable treatment of
us under the circumstance," he wrote.
Mr. Stockton and Ms. Lawrence didn't respond to requests for
comment.
The "Stop the Steal" group was used at least in part to organize
protests against the handling of vote counting in various parts of
the country. The group used Facebook's events function to list
details of at least 14 demonstrations, including one for downtown
Raleigh, N.C., on Friday. Many of the events used the word
"peaceful" in their descriptions.
One, called "Stop The Steal, Harrisburg, PA," occurred shortly
before the group was removed. According to pictures and live videos
posted to Twitter and Facebook, the protest consisted of a small
crowd, including some children, gathered in front of the
Pennsylvania statehouse making speeches and holding "Stop the
Steal" signs.
--Deepa Seetharaman, Emily Glazer and Georgia Wells contributed
to this article.
Write to Jeff Horwitz at Jeff.Horwitz@wsj.com and Sam Schechner
at sam.schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 05, 2020 17:43 ET (22:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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