As the National Guard takes up positions across Minneapolis ahead of the Derek Chauvin verdict, Facebook has announced that it will be heavily moderating its platform to remove posts promoting civil unrest or violence in Minneapolis, according to Bloomberg.
The social media giant will remove posts that celebrate or praise the death of George Floyd – however there’s no indication from the report that Facebook will be removing posts used to coordinate protests – some of which will undoubtedly become riots. The company considers Derek Chauvin a public figure, and George Floyd an ‘involuntary public figure.’
Facebook will allow users to discuss the trial and attorneys, but will remove content which violates their policies on ‘hate speech, bullying, graphic violence and incitement.’ No word on whether they’ll remove clips of Rep. Maxine Waters inciting a mob before members of the National Guard were injured in a weekend shooting.
Any pages, groups, events and Instagram accounts which violate their policies will be removed by teams of moderators who will be monitoring events to determine whether locations are considered high-risk.
On Monday, jurors are set to hear closing arguments before they begin deliberating over whether Chauvin, a white former police officer, caused the death of George Floyd after restraining him on the ground by kneeling on him for roughly nine minutes on May 25, 2020. Floyd, a 46-year-old black suspect who had a massive amount of drugs in his system, advanced heart disease, and COVID-19 at the time of his death. – READ MORE
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