On April 20, Facebook announced that it will ban and remove any information and promotions on anti-quarantine protests from its site.
The ban is applied to those in Nebraska, California, and New Jersey. The company is also in discussions with representatives from New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
For those who violate, CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg stated that the platform is banning their posts under the definition that anti-quarantine protests are “harmful misinformation.”
Zuckerberg adds, “At the same time, it’s important that people can debate policies, so there’s a line on this. More than normal political discourse, I think a lot of the stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation.”
The social platform’s spokesperson Andy Stone also stated, “Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy the government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook.”
