Facebook announced Wednesday that it will ban statements praising white nationalism and white separatism from the site and from Instagram, beginning next week. The company said in a statement that based on recent conversations with “members of civil society and academics who are experts in race relations,” it has concluded that “white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.” If someone tries to post content that’s determined to be separatist or nationalist, the site will redirect them toward a nonprofit that helps people leave hate groups. The decision comes a year after Motherboard reported that although Facebook banned content that was classified as white supremacist, it “explicitly allowed” white-nationalist and white-separatist posts.
