Extremist Israeli organization Lehava has been included on Facebook's internal blacklist of people and organizations deemed dangerous by the social media giant and therefore banned from maintaining a social media presence on its platform.
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Founded by Bentzi Gopstein, Lehava opposes interfaith and inter-ethnic interaction, relationships, and marriages, positioning itself as a Jewish supremacy group. Its activists often riot outside mixed Jewish-Muslim weddings, as well as along the routes of gay pride parades.
Lehava is categorized as a hate group on Facebook's list, along with dozens of armed militias in the US, the Proud Boys, the Klu Klux Klan, and other white supremacist groups, a majority of which are in the United States.
It was booted from the social media platform TikTok in December 2020.
Facebook's internal blacklist was published by the US non-profit The Intercept news site Wednesday. The Intercept published the list, which Facebook used to oversee its social media platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, in an effort to expose the social media giant's considerations.
The so-called "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations List," according to The Intercept, is divided into categories for terrorist organizations, criminal organizations, and hate groups. Among those groups listed as terrorist organizations are Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Islamic Jihad, the Islamic State, as well as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Senior Hamas and Taliban officials, including those with an online presence on Twitter, also appear on the list. As for criminal organizations, cartels in Mexico, Columbia, and Russia appear on the list.
According to The Intercept, most of the names on the blacklist are taken directly from the US government.
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