Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal' -- 4th Update

By Sarah E. Needleman

Facebook Inc. said it is removing all content mentioning "stop the steal, " a phrase popular among supporters of President Trump's unproven claims of election fraud, as part of a raft of measures to stem misinformation and incitements to violence on its platform ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

The announcement was one of a number of new measures announced by tech giants Monday in an effort to deter further unrest after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol last week. Twitter Inc. said it has removed more than 70,000 accounts since Friday that spread the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers believe Mr. Trump is under assault by Satan worshipers.

"We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm," Twitter said in a blog post. "Given the violent events in Washington, DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon."

Facebook, Twitter and several other prominent technology companies -- including Snap Inc., Reddit Inc. and others -- already had taken steps in recent days to silence the president's personal accounts or online communities devoted to him, citing rules prohibiting content that incites violence.

The moves followed the deadly attack on the Capitol Wednesday by a mob of Trump supporters, who stormed the building after the president and his allies urged them to march on it as lawmakers convened inside to certify Mr. Biden's Electoral College victory.

Amazon.com Inc. said aid Monday it is removing some products related to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Separately, Airbnb Inc. said it is expanding safety measures ahead of the inauguration, including banning anyone confirmed to have played a part in the violence at the Capitol last week.

Facebook also said Monday that it would uphold its decision last week to suspend Mr. Trump from posting for at least two weeks, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying at the time that the risks of the president using Facebook during this period were too great.

The social-media giant said it would continue to pause all U.S. ads about politics or elections, including those from Mr. Trump.

"With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the ['stop the steal'] term by those involved in Wednesday's violence in DC, we're taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration," Facebook said in a blog post.

"It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have already removed a significant number of posts," the company said.

Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google also each removed from their app stores the social-media service Parler, which had been soaring in popularity among conservatives and other right-wing users and is known for its loose rules for posting content.

Amazon's action on QAnon follows the company's decision to end web-hosting services for Parler, which has featured violent rhetoric in connection with last week's pro-Trump riot in Washington, D.C. Amazon said it wasn't confident in Parler's ability to sufficiently police content on its platform that incites violence. Parler sued Amazon on Monday in response.

Followers of the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory, which has been labeled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a domestic terrorist threat, were among those that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. QAnon T-shirts, books and hats have been among the items available on Amazon. Amazon says its policies prohibit products that "promote, incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views."

Amazon is still selling merchandise related to the president. Shopify Inc., a Canadian-based e-commerce software provider, last week took down online stores run by the Trump Organization and Trump campaign following the riot.

As part of its announcement Monday, Facebook said it would add to its news feed curated stories about the inauguration and show live video of the event when it takes place at the Capitol on January 20. Separately, Facebook said it hired civil-rights attorney Roy Austin as vice president of civil rights and deputy general counsel and that he will establish a new civil-rights organization for the company. Mr. Austin was previously a partner at the law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP specializing in criminal-defense and civil-rights law.

Facebook has taken action against the "stop the steal" movement before, removing a group called "Stop the Steal" in November that the company said had been organizing protests of vote counts around the country. Around that time Facebook also introduced features designed to limit the spread of false and possibly dangerous content, such as one that requires users seeking to share election-related material to click through a notice encouraging them to visit Facebook's voting-information center.

Georgia Wells and Sebastian Herrera contributed to this article.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 11, 2021 22:22 ET (03:22 GMT)

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