Facebook Bans Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan & Milo Yiannopoulos For “Dangerous” Activity

On Thursday, Facebook announced they will be banning a number of right-wing people due to their extremist and “dangerous” behavior. Louis Farrakhan, who leads the Nation of Islam and is notorious for using anti-Semitic language, and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones are two of the most high-profile names getting the boot.

In addition Facebook also kicked out right-wing extremists Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Joseph Watson, who work for Infowars, as well as white supremacist Paul Nehlen. Since Instagram is also owned by Facebook, they will be removed from that platform as well.

“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of 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 spokesperson said in a statement.

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Facebook bans individuals or organizations that engages in violence or has an ideology that attacks individuals based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. A Facebook spokesperson said they go through a lengthy process and takes into consideration a number of factors before determining an individual to be “dangerous.”

However, some critics question why Facebook banned the accounts all at once on Thursday instead of taking action against the accounts at the time they had breached the company’s rules. These critics suggest Facebook did it all at once as a publicity stunt and to garner positive feedback.

The action comes not long after the shootings at Christchurch in New Zealand in which a killer live streamed a video that was viewed more than 4,000 times on Facebook before it was taken down.