Internet
FACEBOOK BANS PAGES LINKED TO FAR-RIGHT PROUD BOYS GROUP AFTER ARRESTS
Facebook is banning individual accounts, pages and groups linked to far-right extremists the Proud Boys.
People started reporting the takedown on Twitter on Tuesday, according to Business Insider, in the wake of Proud Boys members’ arrests following a brawl on Manhattan’s Upper East Side earlier this month.
The group and its founder Gavin McInnes were removed from Facebook and Instagram, the social network confirmed, highlighting its policies on hate groups.
“Our team continues to study trends in organized hate and hate speech and works with partners to better understand hate organizations as they evolve,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“We ban these organizations and individuals from our platforms and also remove all praise and support when we become aware of it. We will continue to review content, Pages, and people that violate our policies, take action against hate speech and hate organizations to help keep our community safe.”
The Proud Boys’ main US page and McInnes’ personal page are offline, but some smaller pages linked to the group are still up at time of writing.
McInnes, who co-founded Vice Media and left in 2008, created Proud Boys during the 2016 presidential election, and was suspended from Twitter in August. The self-described “western chauvinist” group was designated as a hate group by extremism watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center.
These bans come months after far right commentator and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was kicked off multiple online platforms for hate speech.
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