Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was an “operational mistake” to not shut down a militia page inviting people to bring weapons to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Two people were killed when 17-year-old vigilante Kyle Rittenhosue opened fire on protestors.
Before the shooting, an event with the Facebook page Kenosha Guard was flagged by Facebook users at least 455 times but was never taken down. The page listed the event for Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property.
According to Buzzfeed, the page was cleared by four moderators who said it was “non-violating” of Facebook’s rules.
The page and event were finally removed from Facebook hours after the shooting on Wednesday.
One Facebook employee said that the page made up 66% of all event reports in one day, but it still went ignored.
In a company meeting on Thursday, Zuckerberg explained how the page was missed.
“The contractors and reviewers who the initial complaints were funneled to basically didn’t pick this up,” he said. “And on second review, doing it more sensitively, the team that’s responsible for dangerous organizations recognized that this violated the policies, and we took it down.”
Zuckerberg also said Rittenhouse was not believed to be involved in the Facebook group.
