Facebook banned Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, along with other high-profile figures on Thursday for allegedly promoting violence.
What We Know:
- Farrakhan was not alone in the ban. Paul Nehlen, a white supremacist who ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018, along with right-wing media personalities, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, and Paul Joseph Watson were also banned from Facebook. These figures were also banned from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
- Right-wing conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones and his media outlet, InfoWars received the strictest ban. Jones and InfoWars had been previously banned from Facebook but not Instagram. He is now barred from both platforms as well as Twitter, YouTube, and Apple.
- A Facebook spokesperson told CNN that the company undergoes a lengthy process before a ban to look at factors such as, whether someone has called for violence against individuals based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin, and if they have been identified with a hateful ideology.
- Some critics are questioning Facebook’s timing of the ban and suggest the company should have taken action when the accounts first violated the company guidelines.
- “We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” Facebook said in a statement, according to The Verge. The Verge also reports that despite the ban, supporters of these individuals will be allowed to continue praising them and their viewpoints on Facebook and Instagram.
A few of the banned individuals went to other platforms to express their feelings about Facebook’s decision. “In an authoritarian society controlled by a handful of Silicon Valley giants, all dissent must be purged,” Watson tweeted. Farrakhan has not publicly commented.
