Content from the extremist anti-government “boogaloo” movement is thriving on Facebook, outside researchers and a review by The Washington Post found. The persistence of the content highlights Facebook’s ongoing struggle to keep domestic extremists from using its platform for recruitment and propaganda.

Researchers at the global nonprofit group Avaaz found nearly two dozen Facebook pages affiliated with the “boogaloo” movement, a generally anti-government and anti-law enforcement ideology. Despite the amorphous nature of the online movement, members have become a notable physical presence at both rallies against pandemic shutdowns and more recently Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality. 

Posts on pages flagged by Avaaz between May 28 and June 18 included explicit calls for armed violence as well as more borderline content such as anti-government memes employing euphemisms for violence. Some pages also shared misinformation about the protests, such as memes claiming police were placing bricks to cause riots and conspiracy theories about Bill Gates and George Soros. The majority of the pages were created within the past six months and had a collective following of tens of thousands of users. 

“It's all targeted towards building distrust of police and basically saying that the U.S. needs armed rebellion.” Fadi Quran, campaign director at Avaaz, says.

The violent “boogaloo” content should not be on Facebook.

Facebook changed its community standards in May to ban pages and groups using “boogaloo” and affiliated terminology including “Big igloo and “Big Luau,” when accompanied by images of armed violence. And earlier this month, Facebook said it would stop recommending other boogaloo content to members of boogaloo groups, Reuters reported. 

The Washington Post sent Facebook 15 different posts from 12 of the groups flagged by Avaaz appearing to endorse violence in some form. Five of the pages had some version of “boog” in their names.

As of press time, Facebook had removed 11 of the 12 flagged pages. Seven of the pages were removed for multiple pieces of content violating Facebook's policy against violence and two were removed because accounts administering the pages violated site policies (the accounts have also been removed). One page was still being reviewed. Facebook removes content in violation of its community standards after it is reviewed by a moderator.

But other content recommended to visitors of boogalo-related Facebook pages is also problematic.

The Post was easily able to find multiple instances on Facebook where boogaloo-themed pages and private groups featured a sidebar of suggested other boogaloo content. Facebook uses these suggestion tools to drive users to other content on the platform, but the feature has been criticized by researchers for directing users toward extremist information.

“We continue to remove content using boogaloo and related terms when accompanied by statements and images depicting armed violence,” Facebook spokeswoman Sarah Pollack said in a statement. “We are also preventing these Pages and groups from being recommended on Facebook."

Facebook could not offer numbers on how many boogaloo pages and groups have been removed since it introduced new policies regarding the movement.

Read the full article on The Washington Post.