New year, same old Facebook it seems. The social media giant has started its year with another slip-up, apparently allowing three Britain First advertisements onto the platform – despite the group being banned in March last year.
As per a BBC report, these adverts were placed by a new page, Political Gamers TV, which Facebook has now removed. It’s still active on Twitter, and if that’s anything to go by, the outfit mostly seems to post videos with titles talking about “crazy SJW’s” and people getting “savaged” by alt-right pundits.
The three ads are said to have appeared on Facebook over the Christmas period, and revolved around a petition that complained about the rebuilding and refurbishment of a mosque in Kent, Maidstone – something that Britain First has tried to rally against since planning permission was first granted two years ago.
Responding to the deletion of the ads and the closure of the groups page, Political Games UK director Stevie Cowee said in a statement to the official Britain First news blog: “Facebook has been informed many times by myself that we are just covering the activities of Britain First like other mainstream media.”
All ads are Facebook are said to have to be checked and approved by Facebook staff before going live, so a human will have put their eyeballs on this before pushing it live. It’s an embarrassment for Facebook, which was no doubt hoping 2019 would start a bit brighter than their messy 2018. Facebook has garnered criticism over the last year years for its handling, or alleged lack thereof, of alt-right groups on the platform.
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Meanwhile, Britain First announced back in October 2018 that it was suing Facebook for political discrimination, which is a crime in Northern Ireland as part of the Good Friday Agreement. To give this some extra weight, they’ve applied to be registered a recognised political party in Northern Ireland.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.