A leading UK anti-hate organisation has accused Facebook of hosting terrorist propaganda that celebrated the murder of Jews and praised Islamic State (IS). The Community Security Trust (CST) said the social media giant was too slow to act on posts glorifying the Bondi beach massacre in Sydney.
Deeply Alarming Content and Slow Removal
The CST highlighted that the posts, which included video and images from the attack, were still active on Facebook on 16 December, two days after the atrocity. One video showing the aftermath of the attack, which left 15 people dead as they celebrated Hanukkah, carried a caption praising Allah and had garnered over 100 likes, 27 comments, and four shares. Another post featuring a photo of one of the gunmen praised an IS leader and had received more than 300 likes and 12 shares.
Dave Rich, Director of Policy for the CST, stated: "The sheer volume of IS-supporting accounts promoting terrorist content on Facebook is deeply alarming, and the posts celebrating the Bondi terrorist attack are utterly nauseating." He accused social media companies of failing in their basic responsibilities and "putting all of us in danger."
Regulatory Scrutiny and Platform Response
The CST said it was reporting Britain-based accounts to UK counter-terrorism police and would be calling on the media regulator, Ofcom, to urgently investigate the failings of Meta, Facebook's parent company. Ofcom confirmed it had received evidence suggesting terrorist content persists on major platforms and emphasised that sites must swiftly remove illegal material.
After being contacted by the Guardian, Facebook said it was in the process of removing some posts and that others had already been spotted and taken down. A Meta spokesperson declined to answer specific questions but said: "The content was removed for violating our policies around dangerous organisations and individuals." A Home Office spokesperson reiterated that such content is "absolutely unacceptable" and that platforms have a legal duty to prevent it.
Broader Context of Rising Threats
The focus on pro-IS material online comes amid heightened concern over terrorist efforts to target Jewish communities in the West. This report follows the conviction on 22 December of two men for a plot to obtain machine guns and attack Jewish people in north-west England. Authorities noted a "degree of sophistication" in both this plot and the Sydney attack, with the UK plotters attempting to infiltrate a Facebook group to gather intelligence on potential Jewish targets.
Vicki Evans, a senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, urged the public to remain vigilant and report concerns in both real-world and online communities, stating that terrorist threats "flex in intensity and risk over time."
