Sudan conflict: RSF and Hemedti’s wings clipped on Facebook ‘for violating the policy of dangerous organisations and individuals’

Facebook’s owner Meta has removed the official pages of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and its leader Lt Gen Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, as well as other accounts related to the paramilitary formation on Friday. The pro-military page of Ansrafi was also deleted.

Meta confirmed on Friday that the RSF accounts had been removed from its platforms “for violating the policy of dangerous organisations and individuals.”

Meta’s policy for dangerous organisations and individuals states: “In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow organisations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on Facebook. We assess these entities based on their behaviour both online and offline – most significantly, their ties to violence. Under this policy, we designate individuals, organisations and networks of people. These designations are divided into three tiers that indicate the level of content enforcement, with Tier 1 resulting in the most extensive enforcement because we believe that these entities have the most direct ties to offline harm.”

Explaining Tier 1, Meta says that it “focuses on entities that engage in serious offline harm – including organising or advocating for violence against civilians, repeatedly dehumanising or advocating for harm against people based on protected characteristics, or engaging in systematic criminal operations. Tier 1 entities include terrorist, hate and criminal organisations. We remove praise, substantive support and representation of Tier 1 entities, as well as their leaders, founders or prominent members. Tier 1 includes hate organisations, criminal organisations, including those designated by the United States government as specially designated narcotics trafficking kingpins (SDNTKs), and terrorist organisations, including entities and individuals designated by the United States government as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs). We remove praise, substantive support and representation of Tier 1 entities, as well as their leaders, founders or prominent members.”