Facebook rapidly expanded. New markets, new users, and new countries quickly came online, and Facebook, focused on growth, was all too happy to watch the platform grow. That growth came with new problems, and Facebook, under increasing pressure, faced two starkly different options: moderate content or leave the platform an unmoderated free-for-all.

In the end, Facebook decided to moderate content. Bad press over abuses of the platform by violent and malicious actors had taken its toll. But actually, following through on cutting posts, groups, and users that Facebook thought might be linked to violence proved far more difficult than the company seems to have anticipated.