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Facebook on Tuesday announced that it had banned a violent anti-government network loosely associated with the broader "Boogaloo" movement, a slang term supporters use to refer to a second US civil war or a collapse of civilisation.

But the platform did not try to name the group, underscoring the difficulty of grappling with an amorphous network linked to a string of domestic terror plots that appears to obfuscate its existence. Among other complications, its internet-savvy members tend to keep their distance from one another, frequently change their symbols and catchphrases and mask their intentions with sarcasm.

The move by Facebook designates the group as a dangerous organisation similar to the ISIL (ISIS) group and white supremacists, both of which are already banned from its service.

The social network is not banning all references to "Boogaloo" and said it is only removing groups, accounts and pages when they have a "clear connection to violence or a credible threat to public safety".