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Facebook admits lack of policy on ‘coordinated authentic harm’ in leaked report

Gelo Gonzales

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Facebook admits lack of policy on ‘coordinated authentic harm’ in leaked report

FACEBOOK. The Facebook logo is seen on a screen in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019

Johanna Geron/Reuters

'We have little policy around coordinated authentic harm,' says an internal Facebook report on the platform's role in US Capitol riot

BuzzFeed on Monday, April 26, US time, published an internal Facebook report on its role in the US Capitol riot of January 6, specifically on the groups that grew unabated on the platform: Stop The Steal and Patriot Party.

In the report, Facebook comes to the conclusion that it had failed to prevent the far-right movement that attempted to subvert the US elections, and helped incite the riots. It said that it dealt with the various related groups in an ineffective “piecemeal” manner, failing to recognize the bigger picture, and the larger movement being supported by the groups.

Its focus on “inauthentic” behavior crippled its ability to deal with coordinated behavior by real users. Facebook, historically, has often publicized its actions against what it calls “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” But in this case, the groups were being managed by authentic users, against which Facebook admitted to be helpless.

“We have little policy around coordinated authentic harm,” said Facebook, emphasizing the word authentic. While some of the admins were repeat offenders, “majority of the admins were ‘authentic.'”

“A policy of coordinated authentic harm needs a broader definition of coordination to handle network or movement level harms and the interplay between organic and inorganic growth. It was hard to establish coordination (outside of the same logo usage) across hundreds of Groups/Pages due to the movement not being driven by a few actors, but rather being “adopted” and “promoted” by authentic users,” Facebook said.

Among the most prominent “authentic” figures that Facebook eventually identified with the movement was far-right conspiracy theorist Ali Alexander.

Facebook described his actions in this manner:

“Ali Alexander worked on and off platform, using media appearances and celebrity endorsements. We also observed him formally organizing with others to spread the term [Stop The Steal], including with other users who had ties to militias. He was able to elude detection and enforcement with careful selection of words, and by relying on disappearing stories.”

Facebook admitted that rooting out such figures required “deep investigation” that “takes time, situational awareness, and context that we often don’t have.”

Facebook also identified a few warning signals that it may rely on in future cases such as rapid group growth and amplification, rapid URL sharing for off-platform growth, and common branding and logos among different groups.

According to BuzzFeed, the authors of the report were part of an internal task force studying harmful networks, while the document was published on Facebook’s internal message board in March. – Rappler.com

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Gelo Gonzales

Gelo Gonzales is Rappler’s technology editor. He covers consumer electronics, social media, emerging tech, and video games.