Facebook page’s removal angers Washington protest organizers

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Today

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Facebook stunned and angered organizers of a protest against white supremacists when it disabled their Washington event’s page this week, saying it and others had been created by “bad actors” misusing the social media platform.

The company said the page — one of 32 pages or accounts it removed Tuesday from Facebook and Instagram — violated its ban on “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and may be linked to an account created by Russia’s Internet Research Agency, a so-called troll farm that has sown discord in the U.S.

But the organizers of next weekend’s protest in Washington say Facebook has unfairly and recklessly tarnished their work by suggesting their event could be linked to a Russian campaign to interfere in U.S. politics.

April Goggans, an organizer of Black Lives Matter DC, said protest organizers began planning the event before the Facebook page’s creation. Organizers have set up a new page, but Goggans fears Facebook’s crackdown left many people with the false impression that a Russian bot is behind their event.

“Our participation may take a hit because people are trying to find out what’s legit and what’s not,” she said Wednesday.

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