Facebook bans 'dangerous individuals'
May 3, 2019
Facebook has banned multiple extremist and far-right figures from its services, saying they violated its ban on hate speech and violence.
The figures include:
- Alex Jones, a far-right American radio host and conspiracy theorist
- Louis Farrakhan, a leader of the Nation of Islam group who has been accused of anti-Semitism
- Milo Yiannopoulos, a British political commentator and a former editor for Breitbart News
- Paul Nehlen, a self-described "pro-white Christian candidate" for US Congress during the 2018 election
- Paul Joseph Watson, a "new right" British radio host and conspiracy theorist
- Laura Loomer, a political activist who worked as a reporter for Canadian far-right website Rebel Media
The ban applies to both Facebook's main service and Instagram. Fan pages and other related accounts also fall under the ban.
The move is part of a concerted effort by the social media giant to remove extremist individuals, groups and content from its platform. Last month, Facebook banned various far-right British groups, including the English Defense League and the British National Party, and instituted a ban on white nationalist content.
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"Individuals and organizations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook," a spokeswoman for the company said Thursday.
Facebook insists it has always banned accounts and pages that proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence — regardless of political ideology.
Angry response
Jones, who was permanently banned from Twitter last year, reacted angrily to the ban on Thursday during a livestream of his show on Infowars, the website he runs.
"They didn't just ban me. They just defamed us. Why did [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg even do this?" said Jones, who called himself a victim of "racketeering" and "cartels."
"There's a new world now, man, where they're banning everybody and then they tell Congress nobody is getting banned."
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Infowars responded to the ban by saying it "amounts to editorial control over user content — and a donation in kind to the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate."
British radio host Watson tweeted he was not given a reason as to why he was banned, insisting he "broke none of their rules."
dv/cmk (AFP, AP)
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