Facebook Bans ‘Dangerous’ Conservative Figures but Continues to Allow Leftist Calls for Violence

Facebook was warned of alleged Russian meddling back in 2014
AFP
Lucas Nolan

Although Facebook has begun labeling prominent conservative figures as “dangerous” and removing them from its platform along with Instagram, the company still commonly allows leftist calls to violence to remain online.

Facebook recently blacklisted a number of conservative figures from Facebook, branding them as “dangerous,” despite the fact that many have never supported extremist views or called for violence of any kind. Those banned include Infowars host Alex Jones, Infowars contributor and YouTube star Paul Joseph Watson, journalist and activist Laura Loomer, and Milo Yiannopoulos. Louis Farrakhan was notably also banned from the platforms at the same time despite not being a conservative.

In the wake of this sudden crackdown on conservative figures, many online have pointed out examples of the sort of extremist content that Facebook does not consider “dangerous.” The Twitter account of Far Left Watch noted that a number of militant and extremist leftist groups are still operating without any issue whatsoever across Facebook.

One group in particular, called The Base, is a far-left group based out of New York that has advocated for “militancy to intensify” on their Facebook page alongside photos of members armed with weapons. In many of the photos, members wear balaclavas or scarves covering their aces and the Antifa flag is prominently displayed. Facebook doesn’t deem this content to be “dangerous.”

Far Left Watch also notes that Redneck Revolt, another group with nearly 40 active cells across the country, has distributed training manuals that include sections on “kidnapping”, “executions”, “sabotage” and “terrorism,” and is still operating freely on Facebook.

Even more worryingly, multiple active terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and PFLP have groups operating on Facebook, these also appear to not be considered “dangerous” by Mark Zuckerberg’s company.

Far Left Watch commented on the series of bannings stating:

Facebook’s claim that the recent deplatforming of Paul Joseph Watson and others was motivated by a desire to remove “violent” content from their platform is observably false. We have documented numerous far-left extremist groups that actively use Facebook and other social media platforms to coordinate offline violence and criminal activity, and in many cases they use those same platforms to brag about their extremist activities after the fact. This censorship is clearly ideologically motivated and is most likely being done with the intent to influence the 2020 Presidential election.

Donald Trump Jr. called out the social media firm for its censorship, asking his Twitter followers “how long before they come to purge you?”

Conservative author Matt Walsh also criticized Facebook’s labeling of the banned conservatives as “dangerous, “questioning if the action was in fact libelous:

It appears that Facebook is more than willing to allow violent leftist groups and those that appeal to Silicon Valley progressives to operate on its platform with impunity, but the mere mention of Infowars will be removed in the future. Breitbart News plans to continue to report on Facebook’s actions and the continued suppression of conservative voices by the Masters of the Universe.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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