Facebook bans ‘Proud Boys’ pages ahead of founder’s visit

Facebook and Instagram have banned “Proud Boys” pages ahead of far-right founder Gavin McInnes’ trip to Australia.

Gavin McInnes, centre, takes part in an alt right protest in New York. Pic: AFP

Facebook and Instagram have banned pages belonging to far-right provocateur Gavin McInnes and his men’s club “Proud Boys”, ahead of the founder’s planned trip to Australia.

The bans from Facebook and from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, are because of Facebook’s rules against hate groups, and will likely having a damaging impact on the Proud Boys’ ability to recruit new followers.

“Our team continues to study trends in organised hate and hate speech and works with partners to better understand hate organisations as they evolve,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

“We ban these organisations and individuals from our platforms and also remove all praise and support when we become aware of it.”

Gavin McInnes, who has declared his “Proud Boy” members are “ready to kill”, is due to speak at several events across Australia in December with Tommy Robinson, replacing a cancelled Australian tour by Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter.

Mr McInnes, a Canadian, gained notoriety as a co-founder of media giant Vice before later reinventing himself as a conservative commentator.

In a video describing his Proud Boys group, Mr McInnes said, “We will kill you, that is the Proud boys in a nutshell. We will kill you. We look nice, we seem soft, we have “boys” in our name but... we will assassinate you.”

The Proud Boys are self-described “western chauvinists” and admit only men as members. The group has risen to prominence for its often violent behaviour against protesters of US President Donald Trump.

In order to join the Proud Boys members must swear a loyalty oath, be beaten up until they can name five breakfast cereals and promise to quit masturbation, get the proud boy tattoo and lastly, get into a major brawl.

Mr McInnes told news.com.au in an interview in August that his upcoming tour was focused on “comedy”, and demonstrating to “Millennials and everyone else that there’s life outside of this liberal bubble, outside of social justice warriors monitoring every joke and telling you what you can and can’t say”.

The tour has sparked outrage among the political left. So far over 40,000 people have signed a petition to block Mr McInnes from Australia, with refugee Nyadol Nyuon kicking off a move to ban the far-right activist.

“The thought of Gavin McInnes coming to this country to spread hate is extremely concerning,” Mr Nyuon wrote.

“The fact that his hate speech is often accompanied by violence which is extremely concerning. A man who encourages violence, who formed a gang labelled a hate group and that serially engages in violence should not be allowed into Australia. We should not allow Australia to become the last hope of such a group.”