Facebook still auto-generating Islamic State, al-Qaida pages

In the face of criticism that Facebook is not doing enough to combat extremist messaging, the company likes to say that its automated systems remove the vast majority of prohibited content glorifying the Islamic State group and al-Qaida before it's reported.

But a whistleblower's complaint shows that Facebook itself has inadvertently provided the two extremist groups with a networking and recruitment tool by producing dozens of pages in their names.

The social networking company appears to have made little progress on the issue in the four months since The Associated Press detailed how pages that Facebook auto-generates for businesses are aiding Middle East extremists and white supremacists in the United States.

On Wednesday, US senators on the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will be questioning representatives from social media companies, including Monika Bickert, who heads Facebook's efforts to stem extremist messaging.

The new details come from an update of a complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the National Whistleblower Center plans to file this week.

The filing obtained by the AP identifies almost 200 auto-generated pages some for businesses, others for schools or other categories that directly reference the Islamic State group and dozens more representing al-Qaida and other known groups.

One page listed as a "political ideology" is titled "I love Islamic state".

It features an IS logo inside the outlines of Facebook's famous thumbs-up icon.

In response to a request for comment, a Facebook spokesperson told the AP: "Our priority is detecting and removing content posted by people that violates our policy against dangerous individuals and organisations to stay ahead of bad actors.

"Auto-generated pages are not like normal Facebook pages as people can't comment or post on them and we remove any that violate our policies. While we cannot catch every one, we remain vigilant in this effort."