photo credit: Jarretera // Shutterstock
Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam leader, and InfoWars host Alex Jones for violating the company’s policy against hate and violence. These two are amongst those Facebook says are notorious for using anti-Semitic language and are “dangerous.”
Jones was previouly banned from Facebook & iTunes for hate speech in August 2018, he has also been kicked off Twitter but still remained on Instagram, who is owned by Facebook.
Other people banned on Thursday included Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018, and fringe right-wing media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson.
Nehlen is a self-described “pro-White Christian American candidate,” who ran an unsuccessful primary challenge for then-House Speaker Paul Ryan’s congressional seat in Wisconsin in 2016 and 2018. Yiannopoulos is a far-right provocateur. Watson is a far-right YouTube personality, and Loomer is an activist who is often considered to be part of the alt-right but rejects the characterization over anti-Semitism.
“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN Business. “The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”
The Facebook spokesperson said such factors include whether the person or organization has ever called for violence against individuals based on race, ethnicity, or national origin; whether the person has been identified with a hateful ideology; whether they use hate speech or slurs in their about section on their social media profiles; and whether they have had pages or groups removed from Facebook for violating hate speech rules.
Farrakhan, who has ties to multiple Democratic lawmakers, has led the Nation of Islam religious group since 1975, and has been a labeled a controversial leader because of anti-Semitic and anti-white comments. For example, he made controversial comments during a Saviours’ Day 2018 address.
Source: CNN