Facebook takes down network tied to the extremist ‘boogaloo’ movement

Facebook announced Tuesday that it took down a network of accounts, pages and groups tied to the extremist “boogaloo” movement.

The platform is designating the anti-government movement as a “dangerous organization” and banning it from the platform.

The 220 boogaloo Facebook groups and 95 Instagram accounts were taken down for violating the platform’s policies against organized violence.

Another 400 groups associated with the movement will also be removed.

The network promoted “violence against civilians, law enforcement, and government officials and institutions,” Facebook said in a blog post Tuesday.

“Members of this network seek to recruit others within the broader boogaloo movement, sharing the same content online and adopting the same offline appearance as others in the movement,” it said.

The boogaloo movement, which draws its name jokingly from the 1984 breakdancing movie “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” advocates for violent uprisings with the aim of inciting a race war that will usher in a new government.

The movement has gained thousands of followers since January, largely growing in Facebook groups.

As Facebook noted in its blog post, the movement has drawn new scrutiny from federal authorities recently.

The FBI arrested three men in Nevada earlier this month who called themselves members of the movement, accusing them of attempting to incite violence at an anti-police brutality protest.

In May, federal officials alleged that Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo killed a security officer during a similar protest in Oakland, Calif.

The complaint filed against him alleged that Carrillo plotted the attack with someone he met in a boogaloo Facebook group and had associated paraphernalia in his van.

Facebook previously tried to remove boogaloo groups from its recommendation algorithm, but multiple reports and researchers have raised issues with the effectiveness of that step.

The movement has frequently shifted its terminology to avoid tracking on social media, and Facebook said it has been following those changes.

The action against the boogaloo movement network comes as Facebook faces increasing pressure to deal with hateful and violent speech on the platform.

More than 200 companies have joined a campaign to boycott advertising on Facebook for at least the month of July, while dozens of employees have spoken out against the platform’s policies on political speech.

Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, last week committed to flagging political speech that violates platform policies.