‘The Big Delete’: Inside Facebook’s crackdown in Germany

Facebook touted the move as an innovative response to potentially harmful content; far-right commenters condemned it as censorship. But a review of the content that was removed – as well as the many more Querdenken posts that are still available – reveals Facebook’s action to be modest at best. — Reuters

Days before Germany’s federal elections, Facebook took what it called an unprecedented step: the removal of a series of accounts that worked together to spread Covid-19 misinformation and encourage violent responses to Covid restrictions.

The crackdown, announced Sept 16, was the first use of Facebook’s new “coordinated social harm” policy aimed at stopping not state-sponsored disinformation campaigns but otherwise typical users who have mounted an increasingly sophisticated effort to sidestep rules on hate speech or misinformation.