Pete Evans among celebrities ‘banned’ by social media
They come from all walks of life but these celebrities have at least one thing in common: they all messed up on social media.
Online Censorship
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Pete Evans is the latest celebrity to fall foul of social media.
The former My Kitchen Rules judge has accused Facebook of limiting his reach with a ‘shadow ban’.
For those out of touch with tech lingo a shadow ban allows a user to post but the audience that sees the post is limited.
Evans, an outspoken anti-vaxxer and COVID conspiracy theorist, urged his followers to share his content.
“My reach is disappearing by the day as they shadow ban my page, even though I am gaining thousands of new followers here each week,” he said in a long post on the weekend.
“Which is why I invite you to share as you all can have a much farther reach than I can. This is a period of mass awakening.”
He may be getting off lightly. Others have not been so lucky:
DONALD TRUMP
Just this week, the US President prompted Twitter to act against one of his posts.
The social media giant hid a post containing “misleading claims” after he said certain ballot drop boxes are not “COVID sanitized” and threaten voter security.
And it’s not the first time Mr Trump has fallen on Twitter's bad side. The company took similar action earlier this year over the leader’s posts on the BLM protests most notably his post: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.
ROSE MCGOWAN
The US actor’s Twitter feed was suspended after she took aim at actor Ben Affleck for denying he knew about disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein’s alleged behaviour.
McGowan, a Weinstein accuser, diverted her attention to Instagram instead to explain the suspension was in place for 12 hours only.
At the time, Twitter said that McGowan was shut out of her account because one of her posts included a private phone number, which violates the company’s terms of service.
MILO YIANNOPOULOS
Facebook got fed up with the British far-righter pulling his official page last year and vowing to “continue to remove content that represents him”.
The company said Yiannopoulos, dubbed the “world’s biggest troll”, was violating “Community Standards” by promoting hate speech.
The 35-year-old has a beef with everything from Islam to feminism.
ALEX JONES
The InfoWars founder, a far-right US conspiracy theory website, was given the boot by Facebook last year.
Facebook told CNN the company makes a review and takes into account whether users have called for violence or used hateful language to describe themselves in their “About” section.
Jones responded by saying that Facebook’s actions were “authoritarian” and that they never contacted him directly to tell him they found his posts “dangerous.”
PEWDIEPIE
The UK-based Swedish YouTuber – real name Felix Kjellberg – was banned from Twitter in 2016 after “jokingly” tweeting that he planned to join Islamic State.
Twitter shut down his account temporarily on the grounds it promoted “organisations or individuals associated with promoting hate”.
AZEALIA BANKS
The US rapper’s Twitter account was suspended for cyber-bullying in 2016 after tweeting homophobic and racist slurs at Zayn Malik earlier that year.
The feud started when Banks suggested Malik was stealing her work.
The former One Directioner responded: “My @’s too good for you. No lies … I see you reaching but I don’t care.”
It went downhill from there with Banks taking aim at his Pakistani and Muslim background.
She apologised later that year.
RIHANNA
It’s not what she said, it’s what she showed that landed Rihanna in trouble.
The Umbrella singer was suspended by Instagram in 2014 for posting a photo of her naked backside by a pool.
The photo of the singer’s famous backside was from a shoot with French magazine Lui.
The account was reactivated within days and any offending photos deleted or cropped.
COURTNEY LOVE
The Asking For It singer was in the midst of a defamation lawsuit with fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir when her Twitter account was suspended in 2011.
Love reportedly took aim at the designer on Twitter years earlier, making derogatory claims.
Her original account is still closed but she still tweets from a different account.
CHELSEA HANDLER
The US comedian broke Instagram rules in 2014 when she posted a topless photo of herself riding a horse.
Handler took issue saying she considered Instagram’s rules sexist, because they disallow a woman showing her nipples.
Her account was not deactivated but her risque photo was deleted.
Originally published as Pete Evans among celebrities ‘banned’ by social media