Research/Study
Facebook’s narrow ban allows much of the “Stop the Steal” content to remain on the platform
Facebook’s action was also too late -- Republican members of Congress used the platform to promote “Stop the Steal”
Published
In response to the January 6 insurrection, Facebook has moved to remove “Stop the Steal” election misinformation from the platform, but the new policy appears to be extremely limited, banning only posts or groups using that exact phrase. As a result, the social media giant is allowing activity dedicated to stopping nonexistent election fraud to continue to thrive.
On January 6, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, seeking to overturn the presidential election after then-President Donald Trump -- and his supporters in right-wing media and on social media -- spent months pushing misinformation to subvert the election. Facebook has attempted to both downplay the role the platform played in organizing these events and claim it has sufficiently addressed the issue. In reality, these measures were insufficient to address the misinformation and organizing that enabled the insurrection.
Media Matters has identified posts from Republican members of Congress prior to January 6 that pushed the false notion that Democrats stole the election and promoted “Stop the Steal” rallies. These posts are still on Facebook. Additionally:
- Media Matters identified at least 230 Facebook groups related to election fraud. As of January 28, over 150 of these groups still remain active.
- Of these groups, 91 specifically mentioned “Stop the Steal” or used similar language about a “stolen election” in their name or within posts. As of January 28, Facebook removed 66 of these groups, 2 have been archived, and 23 remain active.
- The additional 139 groups didn’t mention “Stop the Steal” specifically, but are related to so-called election fraud. As of January 28, 129 of these groups are still active, despite having similar content to the “Stop the Steal” groups. Facebook removed 6 groups and 4 others have been archived.
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Doing the absolute minimum: Facebook’s response to election misinformation and “Stop the Steal”
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Several Republican members of Congress promoted “Stop the Steal” on their Facebook pages. Facebook has not taken down these posts.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a QAnon and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who was a right-wing commentator prior to being elected to represent Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. Greene has a history of using social media to spread misinformation and toxic rhetoric -- something that recently got her suspended from Twitter for 12 hours.
Greene’s posts about “Stop the Steal” were no exception to this trend. Since Election Day, Greene has used the phrase in posts on her unofficial, or personal, Facebook page at least 32 times, with 29 of these posts still active on the platform. At least 12 of these posts encourage users to sign her official “Stop the Steal” petition. She has also made at least 56 other posts using similar keywords. (We searched for the keywords stop the steal, stopthesteal, sts, fightfortrump, fight for trump, saveamerica, save america, fightforamerica, and fight for america.)
Greene’s official Facebook page has 4 posts with nearly 7,000 total interactions using these same keywords to refer to “Stop the Steal” without using the specific phrase.
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Ronny Jackson
Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House doctor, has made at least 30 posts since Election Day using his unofficial page that mention a number of keywords related to “Stop the Steal.” Notably, several of these posts appear to have been attempts at fundraising based on the January 6 event, and he even encouraged people to “FIGHT FOR TRUMP” on the morning of the insurrection.
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Louie Gohmert
Since Election Day, Rep. Louie Gohmert has made 5 posts using his official page that mention “Stop The Steal.” Many of these posts also included inaccurate content from right-wing media outlets such as Newsmax and The Epoch Times promoting conspiracy theories and misinformation about the election results.
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Madison Cawthorn
Newly elected Rep. Madison Cawthorn has used his campaign page to promote “Stop the Steal” at least 4 times since Election Day. These posts are self-promotional, encouraging people to donate to “defend our election” or even touting his participation as a speaker at the rally prior to the insurrection at the Capitol.
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Facebook’s narrow policy against “Stop the Steal” content still allows groups dedicated to “stopping” election fraud to thrive on the platform
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Of the 230 total groups, 139 didn’t mention “stop the steal” specifically but are related to so-called election fraud. Facebook removed only 6 of these groups, while 4 groups have been archived. As of January 28, 129 of these groups are still active, despite also being dedicated to stopping (nonexistent) voter fraud and having similar content to the “Stop the Steal” groups. Some of these election fraud groups with thousands of members include:
- We the People... Demand the TRUTH! — over 40,700 members
- Demand Regular in Person Voting Option New Jersey — over 18,600 members
- VOTE ‘22 — roughly 16,000 members
- UNITE LONG ISLAND-Separate Our Votes! — roughly 12,000 members
- We the People (formerly Audit the Vote) — over 9,700 members
