| Dear Katy, A heavily armed vigilante militia is patrolling the New Mexico border and detaining immigrants at gunpoint.1 The United Constitutional Patriots is a known racist organization and fascist militia. Its members are using Facebook to post brazen videos of its criminal activity to recruit new members, and raise money. That is unacceptable. UCP's videos are not just vile and racist, they also violate several Facebook policies on publicizing a crime, coordinating harm and promoting violence or graphic content.2 Thanks to the activism of our friends at the Change the Terms coalition, Facebook just announced it would take down UCP videos that violate company policy and remove the hate group from its fundraising platform3 but, that is not enough. Facebook must ban UCP. Tell Facebook: Stop giving fascist border militias a platform for their hate. Click here to sign the petition. This isn't the first time racists have used Facebook to recruit members and raise money. In 2017, the Proud Boys, a paramilitary white nationalist hate group, used the platform to organize the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that incited lethal violence. It took nearly two years after Charlottesville for Facebook to announce a plan to combat hate. It recently committed to banning white nationalists and separatists from its platform.4 But Facebook is clearly having trouble keeping its commitment. Several of UCP's brutal videos were available for the public to view for weeks and the group's page is still active. The FBI recently arrested UCP leader Johnny Horton for being a felon in possession of a firearm.5 Horton and his comrades claim that UCP works in coordination with Trump's Border Patrol, call immigrants "invaders" and believe that many are terrorists associated with ISIS. It uses Facebook to build its army, incite violence against immigrants, and raise money to purchase food, propane and allegedly weapons.6 Donald Trump's contempt for the rule of law combined with his hateful rhetoric created a permissive environment for racist groups like UCP to proliferate and attack immigrants, people of color, liberals and anyone Trump deems an "enemy." But Facebook is also to blame. UCP's Facebook followers have more than doubled since it posted videos of its members rounding up hundreds of immigrants and holding them at gunpoint. We must make clear to Facebook that enabling and giving a megaphone to violent, lawless racists is unacceptable. PayPal and GoFundMe have already removed UCP from their platforms.7 Add your name now to demand that Facebook follow their leads. Tell Facebook: Stop giving fascist border militias a platform for their hate. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/facebook-drop-ucp?t=9&akid=32387%2E12967895%2EnYSEBe Thanks for all you do, Nicole Regalado, Campaign Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Pema Levy and Tonya Riley, "Human Rights Activists Say These Videos Show Violent Kidnappings—And Facebook Isn't Taking Them Down," Mother Jones, April 24, 2019.
- Bryan Menegus, "New Mexico armed border group barred from Facebook fund-raising," Gizmodo, April 24, 2018.
- Andrew Hay, "FBI arrests leader of armed group stopping migrants in New Mexico," Reuters, April 26, 2019.
- Liam Stack, "Facebook Announces New Policy to Ban White Nationalist Content," The New York Times, March 27, 2019.
- Andrew Hay, "FBI arrests leader of armed group stopping migrants in New Mexico," Reuters, April 20, 2019.
- Salvador Hernandez and Adolfo Flores, "'They Killed Us': Crowdfunding Sites Have Cut Off An Armed Militia Detaining Migrants At The Border," Buzzfeed News, April 22, 2019.
- Ibid.
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