Facebook's deliberations about the notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones have been laid bare in a lengthy email trail seen by Business Insider.
On the day Facebook announced it was banning white nationalism and white separatism from its platform, more than 20 Facebook and Instagram executives discussed an inflammatory post by Infowars host Jones.
It follows Business Insider reporting the post to Instagram on Wednesday. It featured a picture of a painting by US artist Mear One that is considered to have anti-Semitic messaging.
The painting shows what appear to be caricatures of six Jewish men sitting around a Monopoly board, which is being held up by four subservient figures, shorn of their clothes. The post has now been deleted.
The Mear One painting posted by Alex Jones on Instagram. Alex Jones/Instagram
After BI reported the post and approached Facebook for comment, it sparked a lengthy email conversation at Facebook, the contents of which have been seen by this publication. Britain's Channel 4 News also obtained the emails.
The discussion offers a window into the intense deliberations Facebook has about content that could breach its community standards. It reveals conflicts of opinion, layers of process, and sensitivity to how its actions will be portrayed in the press at a time when the company is under unprecedented scrutiny.
Business Insider has chosen not to identify the executives involved in the discussion to avoid the risk of them targeted by Jones' acolytes.
The post was escalated to Facebook's risk and response team in Ireland. Initially, this team said the post did not violate Facebook's community standards, per an email from an escalations specialist. Another executive in Facebook's content policy team agreed with the decision.
In the message, copied below, the escalations specialist noted that there have been "internal discussions" about Jones and his designation as a "hate figure," but that his account does not violate Facebook's community standards.
Business Insider
If Jones was designated as a "hate figure" he would be banned from Instagram and praise or support for his work would be prohibited. He was barred from Facebook in July last year.
As the email chain continues, the Facebook executives then investigate the comments whipped up by Jones' Instagram post. These included remarks like "Stop Zionist shilling" and "F---ing jews," according to a sample of comments seen by BI before the post was removed.
Read more: Instagram is investigating an Alex Jones post that has stoked anti-Semitic hate in the comments
A US-based executive commented: "The 560 comments have been reviewed. Only 23 are violating and therefore the object does not meet the threshold for deletion."
This was around 4% of the comments, and the offending remarks were deleted. It is not clear how many comments need to break its rules before Facebook deletes the entire post.
Alex Jones. Reuters
Around this point, a number of UK executives jump into the conversation to make clear their views that Jones' post is problematic. A policy manager for Instagram was first to raise concerns.
"Sorry for jumping in late but can I check why the image is not considered violating, given the context that this image is widely considered to be anti-semitic? I appreciate on the face of it isn't clear, but I'd have thought that wide consideration changes things?" the executive said.
Another member of the policy team added: "This image is widely acknowledged to be anti-Semitic and is a famous image in the UK due to public controversy around it. If we go back and say it does not violate we will be in for a lot criticism."
Read more: Facebook is banning white nationalism and white separatism
The person appears to be referring to a controversy last year, when British politician Jeremy Corbyn voiced his support for a Mear One mural in London, similar to the one posted on Instagram by Jones. After an outpouring of anger, Corbyn later said he regretted the remark and made clear that Mear One's mural was "deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic."
A Facebook comms executive, also weighed in, saying the image was "clearly an anti-semitic theme," while a senior figure in Instagram's comms team had one of the final words on the painting.
In their email, copied below, the Instagram executive said keeping Jones' post live "undermines" Facebook's announcement about banning white nationalism. "It will be easy for media to say we're being inconsistent or ineffectual," the person said.
Business Insider
By Thursday, the post in question was quietly removed. Business Insider asked Facebook if it deleted the post.
A spokesman for the company said: "We want people to be able to express themselves freely on our platforms, but we also want to make sure that hate speech comes down.
"That is why we have public rules about what is and isn't allowed on Facebook and Instagram. As this exchange shows, deciding what content stays up and who can use our platforms is one of the hardest decisions we have to make as a company and it's sensible that we take the time to get it right."
He added: "As this email correspondence shows, we continually monitor and review whether people are involved in organized hate on our platform. We've already taken down InfoWars' Facebook Page, but Alex Jones has a network of presence online and we are evaluating how to appropriately enforce our policies against him as an individual. We're committed to being diligent and will share an update when that process has run its course."
BI has contacted Jones for comment through Infowars and will update if we hear back. Infowars reporter Millie Weaver tweeted this BI reporter saying our story on Wednesday about Jones' Mear One post was "fake news."
"We have demonstrated trolls are both making & flagging anti-Semitic comments on social media to take down conservatives like Jones & Infowars under false pretenses," Weaver said.
Mear One has previously denied the painting is anti-Semitic and described as "hysteria" the idea that the work is a reference to Jewish people. He made the comments in a blog on the website of renowned conspiracy theorist David Icke, who has been accused of being a Holocaust denier. "This mural is about class, not race, and labeling it as anti-Semitic is a divisive, self-interested political tactic," Mear One added on Twitter, in a post he retweeted only this week.