It has been almost four years since the Proud Boys were banned from Facebook, but they are still trying to return to the social network.
Meta revealed Thursday that it recently removed a network of activity associated with the violent extremists after detecting them on social media. The company says it removed around 480 Proud Boys accounts, pages, groups and events through a strategy called "strategic network disruption."
Meta says it can act effectively against dangerous organizations like hate and terror groups that want to maintain a foothold on the platform.
While there is no silver bullet, we can see adversaries trying harder to hide their affiliation and change tactics as a result of our approach. We will be sharing our findings and staying vigilant.
Over the course of its normal moderation efforts, Meta has removed 750 accounts, groups, pages and events related to the Proud Boys. Meta said that Proud Boys members were directing Facebook users to other platforms where the organization is not banned.
The Proud Boys were banned by Facebook in October of last year after they were found to be a hate organization. The Proud Boys used Facebook as a key recruitment hub and operated a national network of well-organized chapters to grow its ranks through the social network.
Facebook is the recruiting tool of choice for far-right group the Proud Boys
While the Proud Boys used to be out and proud on Facebook, their efforts to reestablish a presence are subtle now. That includes members hiding their affiliation, promoting front groups and pushing more benign content.
When those actions are part of an ongoing effort, Meta doesn't always share them with the public. Hussein explained that the company decided to share its recent actions against the Proud Boys in order to highlight the damage done by banned groups trying to return to the platform.
This is a fair point, there are times when, as we face an especially determined or adversarial org when we opt to make our actions public to highlight the adversarial mutations we are noticing. https://t.co/wQ1sUIudpx
— Dina Hussein دينا (@DinaHussein) August 25, 2022
Since the online heyday of the Proud Boys, there has been an evolution of Meta's approach to Extremism. Meta uses lessons learned through its more traditional, longstanding counterterrorism efforts as well as its more recently developed strategies for dealing with what it calls "coordinated inauthentic behavior."
The organization notorious for stoking street fights in left-leaning U.S. cities during the Trump era is now a focus of the investigation into the Capitol attack. Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, was indicted by the Justice Department for seditious conspiracy.
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