Latest content

Ekiti Govt Recalls GM Sports Council From National Youth Games Over Athletes’ Poor Kitting

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji has recalled the...

NYG 2023: Sports Minister Seeks Stakeholders’ Collaboration On Age Cheat Elimination 

  The Honourable Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan...

Oluwo Marries Another Kano Princess For His Chief, Offers Chieftaincy Title “Yeye Otunba”

  Asmau Haruna AbdulKadir, a high princess from Kano State,...

Facebook bans Alex Jones, other extremist figures

Reading time: 2 Minutes

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it was banning Alex Jones and other controversial U.S. political personalities for violating the social media company’s policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.”

Most of the individuals whose accounts are being removed are popular figures on the far right, including commentators Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Paul Joseph Watson.

Facebook also said it is banning Paul Nehlen, an avowed white supremacist who ran for Congress in 2018, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has preached black separatism and referred to Jews as “termites.”

The company will remove any accounts, pages, groups and events associated with the banned individuals, both on its core social network and its photo-sharing app Instagram. It says it bans any users who promote violence or hate.

However, Facebook stopped short of prohibiting other users from praising or supporting the banned individuals on its platforms, as it has done for militant groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the past.

Hours after his account disappeared, videos of Louis Farrakhan were still visible on Instagram among the 17,000 posts with the hashtag #louisfarrakhan, including a video where he defends his descriptions of Jews.

“If it is truth, then it is not anti-Semitic,” he says in the clip.

Facebook announced the ban before removing the affected accounts, giving the account owners time to redirect their thousands of followers to other channels before the accounts disappeared, as captured in screen shots by BuzzFeed journalist Ryan Mac.

Alex Jones, who has promoted conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school shooting and hosted Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes on his show, quickly opened a new account and live-streamed himself talking about the ban, CNBC reported.

Infowars, the website run by Jones, posted a response saying that the ban “… amounts to editorial control over user content – and a donation in kind to the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.”

Social media companies have an uneasy history with voices on the far right, struggling for years to decide how to handle extremist content even as its purveyors used the services to amass followers and catapult themselves into the mainstream.

The result has often been haphazard enforcement of policies: Facebook removed pages associated with Jones and his Infowars website starting last year, but left up his personal profile, for example.

Apple Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Twitter also banned Infowars last year.

The companies have faced backlash over their suspensions of accounts from conservatives, who accuse them of censorship and bias. Civil rights groups say social media giants have failed to confront extremism.

Facebook says it enforces its rules without prejudice. It tightened those policies further last month with a decision to ban praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism.

“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote

-Tng

Latest

Ekiti Govt Recalls GM Sports Council From National Youth Games Over Athletes’ Poor Kitting

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji has recalled the...

NYG 2023: Sports Minister Seeks Stakeholders’ Collaboration On Age Cheat Elimination 

  The Honourable Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan...

Oluwo Marries Another Kano Princess For His Chief, Offers Chieftaincy Title “Yeye Otunba”

  Asmau Haruna AbdulKadir, a high princess from Kano State,...

LEIC Conference: Oba Matemilola Salutes Media Professional, Ayo Arowojolu, on Doctoral Honour

  A frontline traditional ruler and the Olowu of Owu,...

Newsletter

spot_img

Don't miss

Ekiti Govt Recalls GM Sports Council From National Youth Games Over Athletes’ Poor Kitting

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji has recalled the...

NYG 2023: Sports Minister Seeks Stakeholders’ Collaboration On Age Cheat Elimination 

  The Honourable Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan...

Oluwo Marries Another Kano Princess For His Chief, Offers Chieftaincy Title “Yeye Otunba”

  Asmau Haruna AbdulKadir, a high princess from Kano State,...

LEIC Conference: Oba Matemilola Salutes Media Professional, Ayo Arowojolu, on Doctoral Honour

  A frontline traditional ruler and the Olowu of Owu,...

Sanwo-Olu Appoints Olabode Agoro As New Head Of Service

  Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approved the...
Tropic Reporters
Tropic Reportershttps://tropicreporters.com
Tropic Reporters is an online news platform based in Nigeria that focuses on promoting journalism from the citizens' perspectives to enhance access to credible information and clarification on basic issues and topics affecting the growth and development of our communities and other parts of Africa and the world in general. For advertisment tropicreporters@gmail.com WhatsApp/Telegram: 07066518087
spot_imgspot_img

Ekiti Govt Recalls GM Sports Council From National Youth Games Over Athletes’ Poor Kitting

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji has recalled the General Manager of the State Sports Council, Mr. Adekunle Adeyemi from the ongoing 7th National...

NYG 2023: Sports Minister Seeks Stakeholders’ Collaboration On Age Cheat Elimination 

  The Honourable Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh has called on stakeholders in the sporting industry to continue to collaborate with the...

Oluwo Marries Another Kano Princess For His Chief, Offers Chieftaincy Title “Yeye Otunba”

  Asmau Haruna AbdulKadir, a high princess from Kano State, has been given in marriage to Otunba of Iwoland,Chief Sikiru Abdulwahab Atanda. Receiving the princess from...