Pages from corona deniers: Facebook deletes “lateral thinking” channels

In an unprecedented move, Facebook has deleted about 150 channels of the “lateral thinking” movement. These are responsible for “coordinated damage to society”, spread false information and instigated violence.

Facebook has deleted almost 150 accounts and groups on its platforms that the Internet company assigns to the controversial “lateral thinker” movement. It is the world’s first targeted action directed against a group that causes “coordinated social harm”, said Facebook security manager Nathaniel Gleicher.

Instagram also affected, WhatsApp not

The accounts of “lateral thinking” founder Michael Ballweg are also affected. The action is directed against “lateral thinkers” on Facebook itself and Instagram. The WhatsApp chat service, which is also part of the Facebook group, is not affected. Facebook manager Gleicher accused the “lateral thinkers” of repeatedly violating Facebook’s standards in a coordinated manner. “This includes the publication of health-related misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence.”

Ballweg announced that it would take legal action against the deletion. It has already been possible to legally defend against unjustified deletions several times in the past few months.

Facebook has also identified a list of “lateral thinkers” websites that can no longer be linked on Facebook: “We have removed links to domains of the ‘lateral thinking’ movement from our platform.” The “harmful network” was operated by people who were associated with violence outside the platform and other “social harm”. Authentic users are usually involved in these coordinated campaigns. “These are not fake profiles, but real people who organize themselves to systematically violate our guidelines and to cause damage on or outside of our platform,” said Gleicher.

“Lateral thinkers” have “exercised real violence”

However, people on the network also used duplicate accounts to post and distribute harmful content. “Lateral thinking” is primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy narrative that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to deprive citizens of their freedoms and fundamental rights. “As is known from the public media, this group has exercised real violence in Germany against people who work in journalism, the police or in the health sector,” says the Facebook manager’s blog entry.

The supporters of the “lateral thinking” initiative have been taking to the streets against the state corona measures for months. During the demonstrations in Berlin and other cities, there were repeated attacks on police officers and media representatives. The movement is now being observed by various state offices for the protection of the constitution. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has the scene as a “collective observation object” in its sights, similar to Salafism. Secret service resources can also be used for surveillance, and bank accounts and financial flows between the actors can be screened.

YouTube also blocks corona deniers

At the end of May, the video platform YouTube had already deleted the channel “lateral thinking 711”. A Google spokesman accused the controversial group of violating YouTube’s guidelines for misinformation. Michael Ballweg, spokesman for “Quer Think 711”, denied the allegations at the time and announced that he wanted to switch to a decentralized alternative to YouTube. In the social networks, “lateral thinking” is meanwhile mainly on the Telegram platform. Even extremist content is not deleted there.