Facebook announced Wednesday that it will ban speech supportive of white nationalism.
“Today we’re announcing a ban on praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism on Facebook and Instagram, which we’ll start enforcing next week,” Facebook said in a statement. “It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services.”
“Going forward, while people will still be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and separatism,” the statement said.
The move comes after a white nationalist livestreamed himself on Facebook killing 50 people in two New Zealand mosques this month.
Lawmakers and civil rights groups around the world pressured social media platforms to better handle hate speech in the aftermath of the New Zealand terrorist attack.
“There is no question that the ideas and language of hate have existed for decades, but the forms of distribution, the tools of organization, they are new,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told her country’s Parliament a day after the shootings.
“We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and that what is said on them is not the responsibility of the place where they are published,” she said. “They are the publisher, not just the postman.”
[Also read: Trump says he doesn’t think white nationalism is a rising global threat]
