Nazis turn to Google Plus after Facebook and Twitter crackdown

Nazi and other extremist groups are congregating on Google Plus following a crack down by other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Google acknowledged the issue by saying it had “more to do” in order to properly address it and had put dedicated teams in place to do so.

A Google spokesperson told The Independent: “We have clear policies against violent content as well as content from known terrorist organisations and when we find violations, we take swift action.”

They added: “We have a team dedicated to keeping violent content and hate speech off our platforms, including Google+. And while we recognise we have more to do, we’re committed to getting this right.”

The appearance of dozens of extremist groups on Google Plus was first spotted by The Hill, who reported groups posting openly racist and anti-Semitic content.

Groups and members viewed by The Independent also publicly shared homophobic images and comments inciting violence.

One Google Plus member sharing such content had more than 600 followers.​

A major crackdown on such content on Facebook came after a white supremacists marched on Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.

Internal documents reported by Motherboard revealed that online moderators were educated about hate speech, as well as how to distinguish between terms like nationalism and fascism.

One document explained how nationalism is an “extreme right movement and ideology, but it doesn’t seem to be always associated with racism (at least not explicitly).”

Earlier this month, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Independent that white nationalists would not be kicked off its platform unless they identify themselves as white supremacists.