As the political environment in the United States continues to be hostile after the election, Vice President Elect Kamala Harris has been facing misogynistic and racist posts, comments and racially charged memes.

This has seen Facebook removing a large number posts after it was alerted about three groups active on Facebook that are known to post hateful content on their respective pages. One media body that routinely monitors this type of activity on Facebook has described the posters pages as one dedicated to misogynistic and racist smears.

In response to the warning, Facebook has stated that its systems automatically flag 90% of hate oriented posts. However, while the pages in question are routinely being directed to the president-elect, Facebook has opted not to take additional actions against the group.

Angelo Carusone, who is the president of Media Matters commented that: “Facebook’s removal of this content only after it’s been flagged to them by the media confirms that the rules and guidelines they establish are hollow because they put little to no effort into detection and enforcement.”

Carusone furthermore stated that from a detection perspective, this is the lowest of low and that until notified by the media, that Facebooks “detection” software failed to identify the hate-filled comments. In addition to the quoted comments brought to light by Angelo Carusone, other posts suggested Harris was not black enough, and that she should be sent back to India.

Harris invited to visit Canada

The Canadian House of Commons gave its unanimous consent on Monday to a motion tabled by the NDP. The motion was in reference towards congratulating both U.S. president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris on their winning the election. This comes while current president Donald Trump refuses to conceded and remains focused on trying to disrupt and challenge vote results. 

While the motion non-binding, its passing reflects Canada’s desire to see it’s returning to friendlier terms with the United States after a strenuous four years under the leadership of Donald Trump. That sediment was shared by many other countries who found the hostile nature of Trump to be disheartening.