Facebook is not having any of the alt-right people's anti-"Black Panther" sentiments, as the social media company has shut down the political faction's Facebook group aiming to lower the movie's score on Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregation website for movies and television programs.
This move should prevent the alt-right groups (mainly consisting of white supremacists, hate groups and neo-nazis) from organizing a following and call to action to give "Black Panther" a low audience score on the review aggregator website. With that said, this probably would not prevent them from reorganizing in social media platforms and websites other than Facebook.
The Facebook group/page was named "Down with Disney's Treatment of Franchises and Its Fanboys" had attracted support from almost 4,000 user accounts. Its moderator has also announced himself/herself as having alt-right ideals. It should be noted that alt-right or alternative right is a loosely knit collective of American and European Caucasians who promote white nationalism and use various internet outlets to convey their messages beliefs.
It can be recalled that the same group/page had also taken credit for sabotaging "Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi's" audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, in which the movie oddly has only 48 percent positive user reviews in stark contrast to its stellar critic aggregate score. This low score was not proven though and the group had no evidence to back it up. The moderator simply proclaimed reasons such as the movie introduced too many female characters and that one male character was "in danger of being turned gay."
Facebook has given its stance on the matter and its reason for taking down the group page, stating, "People often use Facebook to challenge ideas, institutions, and practices. Such discussion can promote a diversity of perspectives and greater understanding. However, we're opposed to hate speech and bullying, and don't allow either on our platform."
The folks behind Rotten Tomatoes have also weighed in on the matter and gave similar statements claiming that while they respect the opinions of fans and their users, hate speeches and likewise actions are not condoned. As such, they have dedicated a section of their website in monitoring the domain for such activities and users who seek to partake in any hate activity will be dealt with accordingly.
Meanwhile, "Black Panther" is set to premiere on Feb. 16.
