Facebook pledges to scour threats and content that mocks or celebrates George Floyd’s death

As the nation waits for the verdict in the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, Facebook has vowed to remove the posts which are celebrating or creating mockery out of George Floyd’s death and to protect his family from harassment and abuse.

In a blog post by Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy had said that Facebook is also scrubbing away the post which disrupts peaceful protest and can cause civil unrest or violence, including the calls to bring arms to Minneapolis, which as per Facebook is a “high-risk” location.

Closing arguments in the trial of Chauvin began Monday. The case then goes to the jury and the verdict could come out as early as this week.

“We know that this trial has been painful for many people. We want to strike the right balance between allowing people to speak about the trial and what the verdict means, while still our part of protecting everyone’s safety,” Bickert wrote.

As per Facebook, Chauvin is considered as a public figure who “voluntarily placing himself in the public eye”. However, George Floyd is considered as an “involuntarily public figure”, as he is a Black Man, 46, who died under the knee of Chauvin, a white police officer, meaning Facebook will severe attacks as Floyd has a higher level of protection to content about his death.

An investigation by the human rights group, Avaaz, found that fabricated content targeting the victims of police brutality had remained on Facebook.

“As we have done in emergency situations in the past, we may also limit the spread of content that our systems predict is likely to violate our Community Standards in the areas of hate speech, graphic violence and violence, and incitement.,” Bickert said on Monday. “We will remove pages, groups, Events and Instagram account that violate our violence and incitement policy and we will remove events organized in temporary, high-risk location that contain calls to arms.”