Facebook said on Friday it would block new Facebook events taking place near White House, the American Capitol building and state capitol buildings through the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.
Why?
In a blog post reviewed Friday, the company said the move was aimed at preventing people from using its platform to incite violence. It also blocks accounts and pages that are based outside the U.S. from creating events in the country.
Facebook said it also limits some features of U.S. people. It is based on certain characteristics, such as repeated violations of its policies. The company said it could block those accounts from creating a live video or creating an event, Group or iPage. It said it would add additional steps as needed.
Earlier this week, Facebook announced it would remove content containing the phrase “stop the steal” from its services before it was inaugurated. Facebook had previously removed the “Stop the Steal” group from its operations in November and has removed various other related groups and pages since then, but the company said it was taking this additional step following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also said last week that the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol had not “largely” been organized on the social media company’s services. But there were still plenty of groups that were able to post on Facebook about storming the Capitol building before the riot last week, CNBC reported earlier.
Synopsis
- Facebook said Friday it will block the creation of new Facebook events happening near the White House, the U.S. Capitol building and state capitol buildings leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
- In a blog post that was updated Friday, the company said the action was meant to prevent people from using its platform to incite violence.
- It’s also blocking event creation in the U.S. by non-U.S. based accounts and pages.
