The social media giant said in a blog post that it would increase the enforcement of the phrase because it was used by those who took part in the riots at the US Capitol last week.
“With continued efforts to organize events against the outcome of the US presidential election that could lead to violence, and the use of the term by those involved in the violence in DC on Wednesday, we are taking this extra step in the run-up to the inauguration ‘Guy Rosen, Facebook’s VP for integrity, wrote in a post about the company’s preparations for Inauguration Day.
On election day, the slogan “stop the stealing” quickly became a rally among President Donald Trump’s supporters, many of whom were accused by Trump himself and his allies of making false allegations of election fraud. As a hashtag, its origins date back years, according to Facebook’s CrowdTangle analysis tool, but it’s become very popular in recent months as a gathering place for conspiracy theories about election results.
The blog post appears as tech companies confront growing skepticism over whether they did too little to prevent the violence that dominated the Capitol – and it remains a risk in President Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.