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Azov members and supporters of various right-wing movements burn flares during a rally in front of parliament in Kyiv in 2016.
Azov members and supporters of various right-wing movements burn flares during a rally in front of parliament in Kyiv in 2016.
The American social-networking giant has also been an important platform for Azov's global expansion and attempts to legitimize itself among likeminded American and European white nationalists.
Facebook has occasionally taken down pages and groups associated with Azov when they have been found to be in violation of its policies on hate speech and the depiction of violence.
The first Facebook removals occurred in 2015, Azov members told RFE/RL.
But after continuous, repeat violations Azov -- which includes many war veterans and militant members with openly neo-Nazi views who have been involved in attacks on LGBT activists, Romany encampments, and women's groups -- is now officially banned from having any presence on Facebook, the social network has confirmed to RFE/RL.
Despite the ban, however, which quietly came into force months ago, a defiant Azov and its members remain active on the social network under pseudonyms and name variations, underscoring the difficulty Facebook faces in combating extremism on a platform with some 2.32 billion monthly active users.
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