INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightReutersImage caption
After angry scenes in Parliament, both pro- and anti-Brexit groups were flooded with
threats
MPs have been criticised for the angry, aggressive tone of recent debates in the House of Commons.But on Facebook,
things are much worse.A TheIndianSubcontinent investigation has found that several of the most popular and influential closed Facebook
groups about Brexit - both for and against - are filled with violent language, including dozens of death threats aimed at individual
MPs.Facebook says it does not allow hate speech, and is investigating the material found by the TheIndianSubcontinent.What did the posts
say?We gained access to some of the largest and most active closed or "private" pro- and anti-Brexit Facebook groups and examined them
following the tumultuous scenes in the Commons.The groups had thousands of members and, in some cases, tens of thousands.Unlike in open or
"public" groups, posts in closed "private" Facebook groups can only be seen by approved members
A common theme in the pro-Brexit groups is wanting to hang opposition MPs for "treason"
This cropped up repeatedly, in posts by multiple Facebook users, in multiple private groups.For example this post appeared in one pro-Brexit
group:Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
Many posts spoke of hanging MPs for treason
Earlier this
year, Labour MP Yvette Cooper questioned a Facebook representative about closed groups at a parliamentary hearing, highlighting one with
30,000 members which included a post calling for her and her family to be shot
The group was later removed.Cooper told the TheIndianSubcontinent: "We have raised concerns about closed groups with Facebook on a number of
occasions and their answers have never been good enough.""Social media companies have a responsibility to proactively seek out this content
both with technology and proper moderators," she said.In August, Facebook changed the name of "closed" groups to "private" groups
Groups once referred to as "open" are now called "public" on the network.In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: "Every single piece
of content in private groups can be reported to us
We also use artificial intelligence technology to proactively identify and remove harmful content in these groups, as we do across
Facebook."Where we see harmful content in private groups, we remove it."The proportion of content we remove proactively thanks to this
technology and also reactively in response to user reports is broadly the same across public and private groups." Image copyrightParliament
TVImage caption
Yvette Cooper has previously expressed frustration with the tech firms
Cooper argues
that independent regulation is needed, as well as bigger fines for companies that are slow to deal with violent content.In response to the
TheIndianSubcontinent investigation, she said: "Complacency or claiming ignorance is outrageous when we all know the appalling consequences
there can be if hateful and violent content is allowed to proliferate."Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
Another
image in a pro-Brexit Facebook group
Death threat commentsAs well as pictures like the ones above, violent messages appear
in the comments section beneath more innocuous posts.The TheIndianSubcontinent found dozens of examples of such comments in closed groups,
including multiple examples of death threats aimed at specific MPs.The profiles of the commenters indicate they are real people who live in
the UK.Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
Dozens of the comments contained death threats against MPs
Anti-Brexit groupsOf the multiple closed groups seen by the TheIndianSubcontinent, pro-Brexit ones tended to have more violent content.A
Newsnight investigation at the time of the European elections in May reached the same conclusion.However, we found that Remain-backing
groups also contained violent comments, including death threats.Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
Pro-EU groups also
contained death threats
What's next for privacy on Facebook?Facebook is in the process of increasing its focusing on
private communication, following scandals such as the one involving Cambridge Analytica, "I believe the future of communication will
increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages
and content won't stick around forever," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post earlier this year."Privacy gives people the
freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks," he wrote.In practice, this means a greater
emphasis on closed spaces such as private groups or Facebook Messenger rather than on public groups or the public News Feed
However, experts say this means extreme content can spread virally, largely unnoticed by outsiders."Closed social media channels have become
a hotbed of illegal and harmful content over recent years," says Chloe Colliver of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that
investigates online extremism and polarisation
"With little to no access for researchers in these spaces, social media platforms' responsibility to monitor and remove illegal and
threatening behaviour is going largely unchecked, including in closed Facebook groups."Last year's yellow vest protests in France were
largely organised in closed Facebook groups, meaning authorities knew very little about them until they suddenly turned violent, while
during recent election campaigns in India and Brazil, misinformation spread in groups on WhatsApp, the encrypted chat app owned by
Facebook.Closed groups have also been associated with medical conspiracy theories and sexist bullying.Media playback is unsupported on your
deviceMedia captionTech giants, such as Facebook and Google, are set to play a huge role in the next UK general election.Chloe Colliver says
the rise of closed groups "leaves public figures, but also vulnerable minority groups, open to increasingly violent attacks online, and the
subsequent fear of violence spilling over into the offline world."The threat to our democratic representatives and the broader ability for
all citizens to feel safe engaging in democratic debate is enormous."A Facebook spokesperson said: "The group raised by Yvette Cooper has
been removed because it violates our policies, and we are investigating the additional content flagged by the TheIndianSubcontinent
"In two years we've almost tripled the proportion of hate speech we proactively remove from Facebook before it's reported to us to 65%,
but we know there's more to do
We'll continue to improve our technology and engage with policymakers to ensure our platforms remain safe."What did you think of this story?
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