(DM) – Facebook has revealed it helped law enforcement identify MAGA mob rioters by ‘monitoring the assault in real-time’ and identifying people who posted photos and videos at the Capitol.
The social media giant has been assisting authorities ‘even after the attack was over’ in bringing to justice those responsible for the violent January 6 insurrection that left five including a Capitol police officer dead, Monika Bickert, the company’s head of global policy management said Thursday.
News of its involvement comes after Facebook sought to distance itself from the riot in the days following the attack with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg claiming the violence was ‘largely’ not organized on the platform.
However, despite these claims, leaked internal documents earlier this month revealed execs were made aware Facebook had a major problem with groups spouting hate speech on its platform five months before the attack and tightened restrictions leading up to the election – only to soften them again between the election and January 6.
The extent of information Facebook has so far handed over to authorities in the five weeks following the riot is not yet clear but the company insisted it is in line with ‘valid legal requests’.
Last week, Bank of America customers vowed to boycott the bank after learning it snooped through hundreds of innocent people’s accounts at the request of the government to identify perpetrators of the attack, with details of anyone who made a transaction in DC that day being handed over to authorities. READ MORE
