Facebook pulls ‘Nazi-level hate’ group after Rachel Riley complaint

A “Nazi-level hate” group was removed by Facebook after it was reported over alleged racism by Countdown star Rachel Riley.

The social media site axed Truthers Against Zionist Lobbies, which had 8,700 members, after finding it had posted caricatured images of Jewish people with evil expressions and hooked noses and links to Nazi-revisionist websites, including one bearing the title, “Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told”.

Riley delivered a dossier on the group to Facebook’s London HQ on November 28, alongside Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), who Riley asked to prepare the research.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which protects British Jews from anti-Semitism, first reported this group to Facebook in 2017 and raised the group again with Facebook this week.

Riley had been highlighting images from the group on Twitter daily since her meeting last week, asking Facebook to remove the group.

A Facebook company spokesman confirmed this news and said: “Following a thorough investigation, we have removed this group from Facebook.”

On the news that the group has been removed, Riley announced she has already contacted Facebook and sent a briefing on a second group.

Mr Ahmed said: “Facebook’s platform has been colonised by parasitic hate groups which preach hatred to thousands of potential converts at a time.

“Posts containing Nazi imagery from this group would appear next to posts from family and friends, which our research shows can act to normalise extreme ideas in the minds of group members.

“The CCDH hopes that Facebook will continue to demonstrate their will to act as we uncover more breeding grounds for vile identity-based hate.”