How Facebook handles speech in ‘secret’ groups

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, member of the House Judiciary Committee and Freshman Representative of the Hispanic Caucus talks about what she saw on her tour of area border facilities Monday, July 1, 2019, at the Border Patrol station in Clint. Escobar was attempting to talk over the protesters. (Briana Sanchez / El Paso Times via AP)

US Border Patrol agents are under fire for posting offensive messages in a “secret” Facebook group that included sexually explicit posts about US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and dismissive references to the deaths of migrants in US custody. The existence of that group was reported Monday by ProPublica. Prior to that, few people outside the group had ever heard of it. 

Facebook enforces complex guidelines against hate speech, abuse and other categories when it comes to users’ posts to their friends or to the public.