Facebook has reportedly pulled down pages belonging to Hezbollah, and the group’s television station, for hate speech.
According to an unspecified Israeli radio report, Facebook has deleted pages from the Lebanese-based militant group and its television station, Al Manar, for inciting terrorist activity and spreading hateful messages.
It’s not yet known how many pages have been deleted. A search on Facebook for Hezbollah and Al Manar reveals a smattering of pages with small numbers of members. One Al Manar page boasts more than 41,000 likes, but it’s unclear if it’s an official page.
Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities notes that hate speech and material that “incites violence” is not permitted on the social networking website.
Al Manar is known for spreading anti-western propaganda and has been deemed a terrorist organization by the United States government. In late July, Apple and Google pulled Al Manar applications from their respective stores.
Facebook has not responded to a request for comment on the deleted pages.
UPDATE: The Daily Dot has received the following statement from Facebook:
We unfortunately can not discuss the source of reports, however, I can confirm that the Hezbollah Page has been disabled. Under our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities we do not allow content that “incites violence,” and to help keep our site safe, we use the State Department List of Foreign Terror Organizations to help make determinations of which groups may be involved in the promotion of violence. Due to Hezballah’s appearance on the list, they have been removed from the site.
Photo via Flickr/upyernoz