Facebook Says Removed Accounts Linked To German Group For Sharing Health Misinformation

Facebook has removed accounts connected to a German anti-lockdown group sharing health misinformation and hate speech on their platforms, Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2021) Facebook has removed accounts connected to a German anti-lockdown group sharing health misinformation and hate speech on their platforms, Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement on Thursday.

"We removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts, Pages and Groups for engaging in coordinated efforts to repeatedly violate our Community Standards, including posting harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence. We also blocked their domains from being shared on our platform. This network was operated by individuals associated with the Querdenken movement in Germany, which is linked to off-platform violence and other social harms," Gleicher said.

The people behind the activity used both authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify content that violates Facebook's policies, including promotion of a conspiracy that the German government's COVID-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights, Gleicher added.

He also said that the group typically portrayed violence as the way to combat the measures and that public reporting indicated that the group engaged in physical violence against journalists, police and medical practitioners in Germany.

Gleicher said that the network consistently violated Facebook's rules against harmful health misinformation, incitement of violence, bullying, harassment and hate speech, and that the company repeatedly took action against them. While not all Querdenken content is banned, Facebook will continue to monitor the situation and take action if additional violations occur.