Facebook bans for ‘dangerous’ individuals

Facebook has banned an array of personalities whose views it deems too inflammatory to be shared on its social network.

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in Los Angeles last month.

Facebook banned an array of personalities whose views it deemed too inflammatory to be shared on its social network on Thursday, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, far-Right talk-show host Alex Jones and conservative Jewish activist Laura Loomer.

The move was Facebook’s most sweeping yet against online provocateurs and shows Facebook is trying to be more proactive in removing controversial content that users post on its network, after months of criticism that the company hasn’t done enough to prevent bullying, abuse and hate speech.

Facebook said the people it banned violated a set of policies that prohibit “dangerous individuals and organisations”. That category, as defined by Facebook, includes people or groups that have called for or carried out acts of violence, use hate speech or slurs in their descriptions or follow a hateful ideology.

“The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today,” a Facebook spokeswoman said.

Other individuals Facebook banned included self-described “pro-white” politician Paul Nehlen, media provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson.

Media provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. Picture: AFP

In response to the Facebook decision Mr Yiannopoulos said, “Read Orwell. Censorship doesn’t stop at the fringes. You’re next.”

A message posted to the verified account on Twitter of Mr Watson read: “Dangerous. My opinions? Or giving a handful of giant partisan corporations the power to decide who has free speech?”

Ms Loomer said: “It’s absurd that this is happening in America. I have never violated the Facebook terms of service.”

Ms Loomer said she had already been banned from Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe and Medium, and had lost 90 per cent of her income as a result. “I can’t do anything now. I don’t have any platform,” she said.

The other banned individuals either couldn’t be reached or weren’t immediately available for comment.

Most of the newly banned people owed their influence to the reach they had been able to cultivate through Facebook and Instagram, according to Cristina Lopez G, deputy director for extremism at liberal advocacy group Media Matters.

They used their accounts to post content that “dehumanised entire communities, promoted hateful conspiracy theories, and radicalised audiences — all while they profited from directing people to their own websites”, she said.

“Today’s announcement opens doors to making Facebook’s platform safer and inspiring some optimism that the tech company might be capable of taking responsibility for the ways its platforms have empowered extremists,” Ms Lopez G said.

Facebook said that when it had banned people under these policies in the past, it had also prohibited other users from praising or supporting the banned individuals on its sites.