Containing hate

After Christchurch, Facebook bans euphemisms for white supremacy. But the devil remains in the details.

Christchurch, Facebook bans euphemisms, White supremacism, Facebook, racism, racist content online, online racism, censorship, Indian Express — Following the mosque killings in New Zealand, however, Facebook has erased the distinction and will scrub its platforms of related hate speech next week.

The term “white nationalism” is often a euphemism for white supremacist politics that dates back to the civil rights movement, when even white Americans turned in repugnance against violently extremist white people. And yet, even after 2017, when a racist bigot killed a woman at a rally against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Facebook’s training manuals drew a vague line between supremacism and its gentrified fictions. White is a hue, not a national identifier, and the idea of a white nation is illogical, but Facebook identified white nationalism with permissible ethnic pride. Following the mosque killings in New Zealand, however, Facebook has erased the distinction and will scrub its platforms of related hate speech next week.