Monitor warns far-right Boogaloo Bois movement 'creeping back' on to Facebook

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The far-right anti-government Boogaloo Bois movement is carving out news spaces on Facebook despite an ongoing ban on the extremist group, a monitor reported on Wednesday.

The movement has been re-energized by the FBI's Aug. 8 search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, which has led to wider anti-law enforcement activity among the far-right, according to the Tech Transparency Project research group.

Facebook moved to formally ban the Boogaloo Bois in June 2020, but the project found the social media company has a "poor track record" in enforcing its prohibition, and detected an increase boogaloo groups and accounts returning to Facebeook after the Mar-a-Lago raid.

"They appear to see this moment as a growth opportunity for their movement, which first gained traction in early 2020 portraying Covid lockdowns as a sign of rising government repression," it said.

The Tech Transparency Project discovered "no signs" that Facebook, nor its parent company Meta, "has recognized or taken action on this re-emerging threat."

The movement, meanwhile, has continued to employ past known tactics to evade Facebook's detection, including by using misspellings of its name, such as “big igloo."

Some of the activity found on Facebook includes "valorizing" the man who was killed during a standoff with police after attacking the FBI's field office in Cincinnati, Ohio. The attack came in the wake of the bureau's Aug. 8 search.

Other Facebook posts attempted to promote a protest outside of the FBI's Phoenix, Arizona office, which saw armed Trump supporters turn up to the facility.

The Boogaloo Bois is a loosely-affiliated anti-government movement that believes a second US civil war is coming, and is hoping to jumpstart the process. It has been tied to previous crimes, including the attempt to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.