10 names from India on Facebook’s ‘dangerous’ list

A secret list maintained by Facebook to blacklist individuals and organisations it considers “dangerous” features 10 terror, militant or extremist organisations based out of India. The Facebook ‘Dangerous Individuals and Organizations’ (DIO) list was leaked by The Intercept on Tuesday and contains names of more than 4,000 people and groups, including white supremacists, violent social movements and alleged terrorists.

Hindutva group Sanatan Sanstha, banned Communist Party of India(Maoist), Kangleipak Communist Party, Khalistan Tiger Force, People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak and Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) are among the wide range of organisations from India on the list.

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Terror groups such as the Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Afzal Guru Squad and various local or sub-groups of global organisations like the Islamic State and the Taliban, that have operated in India or across multiple countries, are also blacklisted on the social media platform.

Facebook said it keeps the list secret for a reason.

“We don’t want terrorists, hate groups or criminal organizations on our platform, which is why we ban them and remove content that praises, represents or supports them…,” Brian Fishman, Facebook’s policy director for counterterrorism and dangerous organisations, said in a statement.

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Fishaman said thousands of organisations, including over 250 white supremacist groups, remain banned “at the highest tiers of our policies, and we regularly update our policies and organizations who qualify to be banned.”

Fishman said Facebook has not shared the list “to limit legal risk, limit security risks, & minimize opportunities for groups to circumvent rules.”

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Fishman also said in a series of tweets that The Intercept list is not comprehensive. “I want to provide some context, especially about our legal obligations, and point out some inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in the coverage,” he said in one of the tweets.

Facebook has a three-tiered system to enforce its DIO policy: terrorist groups, hate groups and criminal organisations fall under the strictest Tier 1, while Tier 3 includes “mostly right-wing American anti-government militias, which are virtually entirely white,” according to The Intercept.