Facebook removes racist posts claiming Kamala Harris not US citizen

Facebook removes racist posts about Kamala Harris that said she ‘isn’t a US citizen’ because she of her Indian-Jamaican heritage

  • The posts were on a group that was flagged to Facebook by the BBC 
  • On there, people claimed Harris ‘isn’t black enough for Democrats’
  • They also said she was ‘not a citizen’ because of her heritage 
  • Harris was born in California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father
  • Facebook removed the posts but has not disbaled the hateful groups 
  • It did not hesitate in censoring less offensive posts like President Trump’s during the election  

Facebook has removed what it deems are racist posts about Kamala Harris from ‘hate spreading’ groups.

The social network acted after being alerted to the content by BBC. It claims the content was being spread on groups that Facebook refuses to take action against. 

The exact group was not named. The posts included claims like Harris was not a legal citizen because of her Jamaican-Indian heritage. 

Harris, 56, is the first black woman to have ever been elected Vice President. The removal of the content was as a result of a violation of Facebook’s policies. 

She was born in California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father.  

Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris, Kamala Harris' parents

Kamala Harris, pictured on Monday (left). Her parents, Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris, Kamala Harris’ parents are shown (right)

Other posts said she ‘wasn’t black enough’ for Democrats, and others said she would be deported ‘back to India’. 

Harris was not the group’s only target. Facebook also removed hundreds of sexually explicit posts about other people. 

It raises the question of how much power the company has over censorship and what it thinks should and shouldn’t be allowed online. 

Media think tanks say the social network doesn’t do enough to police harmful content. 

Media Matters America said that it shouldn’t be down to news outlets to alert Facebook to the racist content, which they called a ‘low hanging fruit’. 

The group had hundreds of sexually graphic images on it too that were removed

The group had hundreds of sexually graphic images on it too that were removed

‘Facebook’s removal of this content only after it’s been flagged to them by the media confirms that the rules and guidelines they establish are hollow because they put little to no effort into detection and enforcement.

‘We are talking about the lowest of low-hanging fruit from a detection perspective.

‘And yet, these escaped Facebook’s notice until flagged by a third party,’ the group’s president, Angelo Carusone, said. 

Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for more information on Monday afternoon. 

During the election, the company censored many of President Donald Trump’s posts, claiming they were inaccurate or misleading. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk