In a recent article on Vice, Virgil Texas explains how he took down a white pride page on Facebook. The first step to taking down a white pride group, he states, is to infiltrate Confederate Facebook. It’s surprisingly easy to do, and simply requires clicking “Add Friend” on the page of anyone with a Confederate flag in their profile picture, which usually results in acceptance. When Facebook recommends friends based on this person, just keep clicking “Add Friend.”
From there, Virgil explains, all it takes is an invite to a private group, recruiting some friends, and some serious trolling to take over. Someone invited Virgil to a private group called “confederate pride, heritage not hate,” and he took full advantage of it.
Virgil added several of his friends to the group, and collectively they began trolling. For example, the group posted pictures of the British flag, and they changed the banner repeatedly because it wasn’t locked. They even accused a group member of being from the Northern part of the United States. Said member did not take the teasing well.
Overwhelmed with all the trolling, and unable to keep up, the admin agreed to make Virgil an admin when he offered his services to take care of the matter. Now in charge, Virgil changed the official title of the group to “LGBT Southerns for Michelle Obama,” and the fight was on.
Every time the original admins returned the group to its original name, Virgil and his supporters changed the name right back to various titles including “Islam is the Light,” and “Gay Southerners who Love Obama.” Eventually Facebook stepped in and shut the page down. One racist white pride group may have been taken down, but countless others remain.