Facebook has removed a number of Justice for George Floyd groups for exhibiting “inauthentic behaviour”.
BBC News had highlighted some suspicious groups had switched their focus to call for justice for the black man killed in police custody.
Some, run by accounts seemingly based in Vietnam or Bangladesh, had posted misleading images.
And others had previously focused on coronavirus, 5G conspiracies and support for US President Donald Trump.
A Facebook spokesman said it had “removed the vast majority of them, for violating our policies”.
Stoking tensions
There has been a surge in membership for Facebook groups supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, following the protests sparked by Mr Floyd’s death, on 25 May.
But for some it is unclear what the motives of their administrators are.
In some cases, they could be exploiting the movement to gain followers and/or stoke tensions.
Some of the profiles based outside the US had frequently posted inflammatory images and videos before Facebook intervened.
One group, Justice for George Floyd, had almost 2,000 members.
Set up in March, it originally focused on the coronavirus but later that month switched to “US breaking news”, featuring stories sympathetic to the US president, before turning to Black Lives Matter.
