Facebook bans Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, InfoWars and others from its platforms as 'dangerous'
Facebook bans Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos,
InfoWars and others from its platforms as 'dangerous'
By Oliver Darcy Updated 3:03 PM ET, Thu May 2, 2019
New York (CNN Business) Facebook announced Thursday
afternoon that it had designated some high-profile people, including Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who's notorious for using anti-Semitic language,
and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as "dangerous" and
said it will be purging them from its platforms.
Jones and his media outlet InfoWars had previously been
banned from Facebook (FB) in August 2018, but had maintained a presence on
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. On Thursday, Jones and InfoWars will be
barred from Instagram as well.
Other people banned Thursday include fringe right-wing
media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson.
Also included are Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for
Congress in 2016 and 2018.
"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."
A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business the company
goes through a lengthy process and takes into consideration a number of factors
before determining an individual to be "dangerous."
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.
In some instances, when Facebook bans an individual or
organization, it also restricts others from expressing praise or support for
them on its platforms, the spokesperson said, adding that the company continues
to view such action as the correct approach. That policy may not apply to any
or all of the people banned Thursday, however.
The spokesperson added that Facebook will remove groups,
pages and accounts created to represent the banned individuals when it knows
the individual is participating in the effort.
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