Operation Counter speech : Facebook supporting several initiatives to counter terrorists propaganda
After Twitter banned some 125,000 handles belonging to ISIS and its affiliates, its now Facebook’s turn to undertake some strict action against FB pages being maintained by terrorists of all hues. To do this, Facebook has undertaking a initiative called “counter speech,” according to The Wall Street Journal
Facebook through its counter speech campaign, Â it is attempting to discredit terrorist content with posts from its users. The social network has supported several counter speech initiatives in recent months, offering ad credits to some users and collaborating with the US State Department to develop messaging from college students.
The counter speech initiative was elaborated by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg last month. Last month when speaking at the World Economic Forum, she expressed her support for campaigns that counter propaganda from terrorist groups like ISIS with messages of tolerance and hope. Sandberg pointed to a recent case in which a Facebook page for a neo-Nazi group was flooded with “likes” and positive messages.
The WSJ reports that a team led by Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, met in December to plan ways to encourage counter speech through competitions and ensure that it reaches target audiences. Under the initiative, Facebook has given ad credits worth up to $1,000 to those who post counter-extremist messages, and together with the State Department, launched competitions in 45 college classes around the world. Those who participated in the competition were provided a budget of $2,000 and $200 in ad credits.
