Sheryl Sandberg says the US Capitol siege was not primarily organized on Facebook (FB)

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Sheryl Sandberg said last week’s siege of the US Capitol building was not primarily organized on Facebook. 

Facebook’s chief operating officer said the siege, in which a violent mob stormed the Capitol building, was organized online, but on platforms that don’t have Facebook’s ability to “stop hate.” 

“We know this was organized online,” Sandberg said at the Reuters Next conference on Tuesday. “We took down QAnon, Proud Boys, Stop the Steal, anything that was talking about possible violence last week. Our enforcement is never perfect, so I’m sure there were still things on Facebook. I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate, and don’t have our standards, and don’t have our transparency.” 

Read more: The siege of the US Capitol was a disaster for congressional cybersecurity — and experts say Congress will likely have to wipe all its computers and rebuild from scratch

Last Wednesday, a pro-President Donald Trump mob broke into the House and Senate chambers seeking to stop Congress from counting electoral votes to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. The violence resulted in at least five deaths and dozens of arrests.

Following the insurrection, data researchers told Buzzfeed News rioters had organized the siege on publicly on Facebook, Twitter, and Parler. Experts told Insider’s Katie Canales Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were “indirectly involved” in the insurrection for allowing misinformation and violent speech to spread on social media.

Tech leaders like Chris Sacca, an early investor in Instagram, and Roger McNamee, an early investor in Google, criticized Facebook for allowing hate speech to live on the platform.

“You’ve got blood on your hands, @jack and Zuck,” Sacca said in a tweet. “For four years you’ve rationalized this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise. If you work at those companies, it’s on you too. Shut it down.”

Facebook suspended Trump’s account indefinitely a day after the insurrection, and the firm suspended all political contributions for at least three months.

Twitter, meanwhile, suspended Trump’s account permanently. Shopify removed all Trump-affiliated websites, including his official campaign store. And Parler, a social media upstart praised by conservative lawmakers and far-right influencers, has been removed from Google and Apple’s app stores and from Amazon’s web hosting platform. 

SEE ALSO: Facebook has hired its first vice president of civil rights

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