Company’s Public Relations Efforts Won’t Get Any Easier With Scandal After Scandal

Facebook’s next head of communications will have their work cut out for them. After Elliot Schrage announced his departure from the company in June, Recode reported this week that Mr. Zuckerberg was looking to the outside to find his replacement. It’s been a tumultuous year for Facebook: from the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, to the proliferation of hate speech on its platform in Myanmar, to the security breach of 50 million users’ personal information, the next communications lead will have their work cut out for them. And it won’t get any easier – officials in Europe and the U.S. are “threatening to dismantle laws” that have allowed websites like Facebook to brush off responsibility for the content on their platforms, including hate speech, hoaxes and terror content.

Officials are cracking down on Facebook precisely because of individuals such as Abdulrahman Alcharbati. Standing trial before the United Kingdom’s Newcastle Crown Court, prosecutors laid out the many examples of terrorist content Alcharbati posted on Facebook, including ISIS propaganda and bomb-making instructions. The material depicted acts of “combat, executions, suicide bombings and propaganda about the lives of children living under ISIS rule.” In total, officials found 70 posts of Alcharbati’s that directly refer to ISIS and 40 to martyrdom. Of further concern was that despite these clear violations of Facebook’s terms of service, the company had disabled and restored his account an astounding nine times before finally permanently taking it down in 2017.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) routinely finds content on Facebook similar to that which Alcharbati posted. One, a fan-made ISIS nasheed video accompanied by clips from several official ISIS videos showing combat, prayer and the terror group’s lifestyle, has been up on the website for two years. Another video, made by the pro-ISIS group Abd al-Faqir Media celebrates the September 22, 2018 Ahvaz, Iran attack and contains footage originally included in news reports.  This version of the video has English subtitles.

To read more about this issue and see the aforementioned examples, as well as other examples of extremist content, please see the background below.     

EXTREMIST FACEBOOK CONTENT

1. Pro-ISIS Video On Facebook For Five Days With Over 100 Views

• Located on Facebook: October 10, 2018
• Time on Facebook: Five days
• Views: 142, 25 likes/reacts and one share
• URL: Link
• Profile Language: N/A
• Description: A video made by the pro-ISIS group Abd al-Faqir Media originally released on September 28, 2018.  The video celebrates the September 22, 2018 Ahvaz, Iran attack and contains footage originally included in news reports. This version of the video has English subtitles.

​2. Fan-Made ISIS Nasheed Video On Facebook For Two Years

• Located on Facebook: October 10, 2018
• Time on Facebook: Two years
• Views: 1,300-plus, 41 likes/reacts and 42 shares
• URL: Link
• Profile Language: Arabic
• Description: A fan-made ISIS nasheed video accompanied by clips from several official ISIS videos that show combat, prayer and the terror group’s lifestyle. 

3. Pro-ISIS Propaganda Image

• Located on Facebook: October 10, 2018
• Time on Facebook: Approximately 24 hours
• Views: N/A, 8 likes/reacts
• URL: Link
• Profile Language: N/A
• Description:  An image glorifying the pro-ISIS Indonesian online group Gen 554.

4. Facebook Profile Advertising ISIS T-Shirts

• Located on Facebook: October 10, 2018
• Time on Facebook: Nine hours
• Views: N/A, 64 likes/reacts.
• URL: Link
• Profile Language: Indonesian
• Description:  A Facebook page offering pro-ISIS t-shirts that show the symbols for former ISIS territorial holdings. The post lists prices and a contact number.

BACKGROUND

Facebook Is Looking To Hire Someone Outside The Company To Head Its Communications Efforts. “When Facebook has an important job opening, CEO Mark Zuckerberg usually just looks around the office for a replacement. When Instagram’s co-founders abruptly left the company late last month, for example, Zuckerberg tapped a long-tenured Facebook executive to take over the app. The same thing happened when WhatsApp’s founders left, when Facebook needed to fill a high-profile head of partnerships role last month and when the company started a new blockchain division. But that tendency to hire from within is not what’s happening in its search to fill one of its most important open roles: Leading global policy and communications for the social media giant.  Elliot Schrage, who’s held that position for the past decade, announced in June that he was stepping down.” (Kurt Wagner, “Facebook Is Looking Outside The Company For A New Face Of Facebook,” Recode, 10/10/18)

Officials In Europe And The United States Are Continuing Their Crackdown On Social Media Companies Like Facebook. “Policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic are threatening to dismantle laws that have allowed online giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter to flourish – a change that could force them to take a heavy hand in policing what their billions of users see on the internet. In Washington and Brussels, a series of two-decade-old legal provisions dating to the web’s early days allow internet companies to host content posted by users without being legally responsible for it. Thanks to that immunity, U.S. companies have built massive profit engines around material such as Facebook posts, Instagram photos and YouTube videos, without having to screen them ahead of time. But now lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and European Union are starting to chip away at those protections, driven by growing concern about hoaxes, hate speech and other online bad behavior.” (Ashley Gold & Joanna Plucinska, “U.S., Europe Threaten Tech Industry's Cherished Legal 'Shield',” Politico, 10/8/18)

Abdulrahman Alcharbati Has Been Accused By UK Prosecutors Of Sharing ISIS Propaganda On Facebook. “A Facebook user allegedly encouraged acts of terrorism by posting links to ISIS videos – despite having previously been warned and banned by the social networking site.  Engineer Abdulrahman Alcharbati posted the extremist material on his open Facebook page, including footage of executions and suicide bombings, which anyone could have seen, a court heard. The 32-year-old, of Westholme Gardens, Benwell, Newcastle, denies seven offences under the Terrorism Act and is standing trial at Newcastle Crown Court. Prosecutors said that as well as posting ISIS videos, he also had on his phone a 120 page bomb-making manual called Easy Explosives 4th Edition. Copies were made of his Facebook profile and 400 posts were recovered between January 24 and February 26. Of those, 70 were found to refer to ISIS directly and 40 made reference to martyrdom.” (Rob Kennedy, “Benwell Man Allegedly Used His Facebook Account To Encourage Acts Of Terrorism By Posting Links To ISIS Videos,” Chronicle Live, 10/9/18)

It Took Nine Tries Before Facebook Finally Shut Down Alcharbati’s Account. “There have also been instances in which Facebook has reinstated a user's account even after it was removed for terrorist-related activity. British terror suspect Abdulrahman Alcharbati, who is accused of sharing hundreds of links on Facebook that called for acts of terror, had his account disabled and restored nine times before it was permanently taken down last year.” (Samuel Smith, “Facebook Introduced ISIS Jihadis To Each Other Through ‘Suggested Friends’ Feature, Analysts Find,” The Christian Post, 5/7/18)