Facebook takes down Britain First ads By Jane Wakefield

Technology reporter Published duration 7 January 2019 Related Topics Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal

image copyright Getty Images/Facebook image caption Political groups have been spending increasing amounts of money on Facebook adverts

Ads for a Britain First petition to stop a mosque being built in Maidstone, Kent, appeared on Facebook over the Christmas period, despite the group being banned by the social network.

The three ads and the page on which they originated have now been removed, after BBC News contacted Facebook.

Political Gamers TV says this is unfair as it has no direct links with Britain First and just reports its activities.

Britain First says it is suing Facebook for "political discrimination".

'Hate speech'

Political Gamers TV told BBC News: "If any of our paid ads went against the Facebook policies, why were they approved by Facebook in the first place during the review process which all ads go through?"

The ads were first spotted and reported to Facebook as hate speech by user Brian Whelan on 2 January and he received a standard response from Facebook saying that the page in question did not "go against one of our specific community standards".

A day later, when the BBC got in touch, it had changed its mind.

"We thank the BBC for bringing the page Political Gamers TV to our attention, which violated our policies and has now been removed," Facebook told BBC News.

"We urge people to use our reporting tools if they find content that they believe violates our community standards, so we can continue to take appropriate action such as this."

image copyright Facebook image caption The Facebook pages of party leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, have also been removed

Political Gamers TV told BBC News it was "a new, growing patriotic gaming youth movement... here to defend the rights of gamers and games from the unfair treatment of male gamers coming from SJWs [social justice warriors], feminists and left-wing activists".

Facebook banned Britain First in March, removing the pages of its leader and deputy for violating its community standards.

'Political gerrymandering'

In a statement on the latest development, the group accused Facebook of getting too involved in politics.

"Facebook censored Britain First, cutting off 2.7 million of our supporters.

"Now, they are deliberately targeting anyone who posts content supportive of Britain First.

"This is political gerrymandering and censorship at its worst.

"This is why Britain First is suing Facebook for political discrimination, in Belfast High Court."

Mr Whelan told BBC News: "The Political Gamers channel is much more small fry - but it shows that Facebook are still taking ads from such groups and aren't able to filter out the groups they publicly said they will ban.

"Nobody from Facebook was in touch to say they had banned the account, or clarify anything."