Facebook shuts down pro-Trump ‘Stop the Steal’ group after 350,000 members call for violence
FACEBOOK has shut down a rapidly growing 'Stop the Steal' group after 350,000 members call for violence to avenge President Donald Trump.
The pro-Trump page called for "boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote" as it collected 1,000 new members every ten seconds.
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When the voting station was reportedly forced to close to the public, Joe Biden was ahead in the state by roughly 70,000 votes.
A tweet from Maricopa's elections department said: "Staff will continue our job, which is to administer elections in the second largest voting jurisdiction in the county.
For months, Trump allies have been preparing for the chance that the president lost his re-election bid.
As tallies increasingly improve the odds for Trump's Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, and as U.S. broadcasters and other major media outlets brush off Trump's claims of victory, the president and his supporters have taken to social media to try to turn the narrative around, floating conspiratorial theories using the hashtag #StopTheSteal.
But social media companies have been signaling less patience with disinformation and calls for violence.
Eleven of the president's 32 tweets since Election Day on Tuesday have been placed behind a warning label saying they were disputed, prompting him to use email and other media to voice his claims, researchers said.
On Thursday, Snap Inc's Snapchat removed a video from Trump's account in which Biden said he has an extensive "voter fraud organization."
Biden's statement came during an interview in which he was discussing his team fighting voter suppression efforts, and Snap determined that Trump's use out of context violated its policy against undermining the integrity of civic processes.
Trump campaign social media manager Ryann McEnany decried Snap's action in a tweet, saying in capital letters: "Why won't they let the American people see this!?"
Twitter on Thursday suspended an account used by former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon after he recorded a video in which he called for beheading FBI Director Christopher Wray as well as government infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci for being disloyal to Trump.
A Twitter spokesman cited company policy against glorifying violence. Other services also removed the video on similar grounds.
But the takedowns and warnings are something Trump supporters appear prepared for. Before Facebook deleted "Stop the Steal," organizers directed members to an email sign-up page "in the event that social media censors this group."
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The group's membership surged because seven prominent conservatives promoted it to their hundreds of thousands of followers, according to Renee DiResta, a researcher involved in the anti-misinformation Election Integrity Partnership.