Despite Ban, Facebook Continued To Label People As Interested In Militias For Advertisers

For months after it banned violent extremist groups, Facebook’s advertising preference system, which lets advertisers deliver targeted ads, continued to identify and categorize some people as interested in militias.

Last August, in preparation for the 2020 US presidential election, the social network said it would take down any Facebook pages, groups, and Instagram accounts “tied to offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon.” More than seven months later, the company was still tracking user interest in militias for possible targeted advertising, another misstep in the already spotty and haphazard enforcement of its policy.

“We removed this targeting term last summer and are working to understand why it could appear in Ad Preferences,” Facebook spokesperson Liz Bourgeois told BuzzFeed News.