Facebook has been sued for allegedly inflaming the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
On Tuesday, four residents filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin that alleges Facebook “empowered right wing militias” to inflict violence on Aug. 25, which led to 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shooting two people and injuring a third who were attending a Black Lives Matter protest.
The lawsuit asks the judge to force Facebook to pay damages and do more to effectively block militia groups from remaining active on the social network.
The lawsuit points to how the local militia group, the Kenosha Guard, used Facebook to encourage the public to “take up arms” and defend the city from “evil thugs” on the night of Aug. 25. In response, some users wrote they were ready “to kill looters and rioters,” and planned on switching to “real bullets.”
(Credit: the lawsuit)
According to BuzzFeed, the social network received at least 455 complaints about the militia group’s event page before it was taken down several hours after the Aug. 25 shooting.
“Facebook’s inaction led to the death of two protestors, in addition to the harm suffered by plaintiffs,” the lawsuit argues. Among the plaintiffs is Hannah Gittings, the partner of Anthony Huber, who was shot and killed by Rittenhouse.
The lawsuit says Facebook knew a potentially violent event was going to take place, but neglected to stop it. “There were over 400 reports of the violent rhetoric taking place on the Kenosha Guard event page, establishing Facebook had ample knowledge of the conspiracy. Removing this page from its platform would have greatly aided in preventing the organization and popularization of the militias,” the complaint adds.
The same lawsuit also goes after Rittenhouse, the Kenosha Guard, and another militia group, the Boogaloo Bois, and demands damages for conspiring to violate people’s civil rights
In a statement Facebook said: “We removed the shooter’s (Rittenhouse’s) Facebook and Instagram accounts and took action against organizations and content related to Kenosha. We have found no evidence that suggests the shooter followed the Kenosha Guard Page or that he was invited to the Event Page they organized.”
In a company meeting last month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reportedly said the social network had made a mistake in not taking down the Kenosha Guard page, and blamed the error on content moderators failing to understand how militias operate.
