Facebook’s Sandberg claims Capitol riots organized mostly on other social media platforms

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Monday that last week’s deadly U.S. Capitol riots were mainly organized on other social media platforms.

“We again took down QAnon, Proud Boys, Stop the Steal, anything that was talking about possible violence last week,” Sandberg said during a streamed interview with Reuters, CNBC noted.

“Our enforcement is never perfect, so I’m sure there were still things on Facebook,” added Sandberg. “I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate, don’t have our standards and don’t have our transparency.”

Many lawmakers and critics have called into question why law enforcement and other officials were not more prepared for the rioting when events had been heavily publicized beforehand. Supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol on Wednesday after he spoke to them, delaying the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

One site that bills itself as a “free speech” social network, Parler, has faced intense backlash. It has been taken off the app stores for Apple and Google. Amazon has also stopped hosting the site on its web service, essentially knocking Parler offline.

During the interview with Reuters, Sandberg also stated that Facebook “had no plans” to lift the ban on Trump’s accounts. His accounts were banned until at least President-elect Joe Biden inauguration next week.

Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account last week and deleted tweets he made later from the @POTUS Twitter account, saying users were not allowed to avoid a ban with another account. The pro-Trump Reddit group r/DonaldTrump was also taken down last week.

During the interview on Monday, Sandberg was also asked about her future with the company, following reports last year that she had been pushed aside as founder Mark Zuckerberg took a more hands-on role with the company and its relationship to lawmakers.

Sandberg stated that she was staying with the company and that she loved her job.

“People love headlines about corporate drama, and I think it’s fair to say they particularly love headlines about sidelining women, but I feel tremendously lucky to have this job,” she said.