America ‘on fire’: Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate

By AMANDA SEITZ
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Internal Facebook documents reveal a country lit “on fire” in the days after controversial social media posts from then-President Donald Trump last year. Facebook’s own analysis shows that hate speech and violence reports skyrocketed on the site immediately after Trump sent a social media message threatening to shoot looters in Minneapolis amid protests after the killing of George Floyd. Facebook took no action on Trump’s post. The platform’s automated controls were almost 90% certain that Trump’s post violated company policies against inciting violence, contradicting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claims last year that the post didn’t break company rules. Facebook said that internal controls aren’t always correct and human reviews, like the one on Trump’s post, are more accurate.