Trump warned that he is monitoring “the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms.”
He also reposted commentary on the alleged censorship from several prominent right-wing figures, including The Daily Wire Executive Producer Jeremy Boreing, journalist and activist Lauren Southern, and commentator Paul Joseph Watson—who were among those purged by Facebook.
Woods, a Hollywood actor and producer who is politically vocal on Twitter, discovered his account was suspended over a tweet of his that advocated for the death penalty for those who commit treason.
“‘If you try to kill the King, you better not miss.’ #HangThemAll,” he said, adopting a quote from 19th-century American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It appears Woods was referring to those who are allegedly trying to remove Trump from office using unsubstantiated allegations that the president colluded with Russia.
Trump repeatedly has accused social media companies of having a bias against conservatives. While Silicon Valley’s workforce is known to lean overwhelmingly left, the companies have denied the workers’ political biases seep into their content policing.
Lumping Conservatives With Terrorists
Facebook said on May 2 that it was banning InfoWars founder Alex Jones, right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, conservative journalist and activist Laura Loomer, InfoWars contributor Watson, and a few others for violating the social media company’s policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.”Facebook said it 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 it deems are promoting “violence” or “hate.”
In a video response, which was shared by Trump, Watson took issue with being labeled “dangerous,” pointing out that Facebook has been using this label to describe individuals and groups involved in terrorism, mass or serial murder, organized crime, human trafficking, and “organized hate.”
Watson is a chief reporter at InfoWars who, in recent years, has focused on critiquing postmodernist culture. Videos on his YouTube channel have been viewed more than 380 million times.
Alex Jones’s InfoWars news and commentary channel were kicked off Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, YouTube, and other platforms last year. Facebook has now also removed his personal profile, and is apparently removing any InfoWars content, even posted by other users.
Jones, a longtime radio host, has faced frequent criticism for making controversial, sometimes unverified, claims and for his hot-tempered outbursts.
Trump retweeted on May 4 one of InfoWars’ videos showing its reporter, Millie Weaver, interviewing several black Trump supporters.
Who’s ‘Dangerous’?
A Facebook spokesperson explained that part of the reason Jones, Yiannopoulos, Loomer, and Watson were banned was that they interviewed or publicly praised Gavin McInnes, Tommy Robinson, and/or Faith Goldy—all previously labeled as “dangerous” by Facebook.Facebook Community Standards prohibit content that “supports” individuals and groups marked “dangerous,” but there seems to be no written policy to ban accounts of people who express such support.
The spokesperson also indicated that even people who don’t call for violence or engage in “organized hate” can be labeled “dangerous” and banned by Facebook, but didn’t explain what part of the Community Standards informs users of such a risk or how to avoid it. Facebook looks at different indicators, the spokesperson said, including activity on Facebook and in real life, to make the determinations.
One example the spokesperson gave was that violence occurring at an event organized by a certain group may be part of the reason for labeling the group “dangerous.” It wasn’t clear whether the group necessarily needs to initiate the violence. Content posted on Facebook in violation of the platform’s policies in general may also contribute to the “dangerous” label. The spokesperson, however, made it clear there could be other unspecified indicators playing a role too.
Facebook doesn’t want to reveal all the indicators it uses so as to prevent people from circumventing the rules, the spokesperson said.
McInnes, co-founder of Vice magazine, is a comedian and the founder of the somewhat satirical Proud Boys men’s club that describes itself as “Western chauvinists,” a term coined by McInnes to mean “a proud and unabashed proponent of Western Civilization.”
Nehlen and Farrakhan
Among those Facebook said it was going to ban were also Paul Nehlen and Louis Farrakhan.Nehlen is a failed Wisconsin congressional candidate who previously was banned from Twitter after he posted a picture of Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, who is half black, with her face replaced with a dark-skinned face rendered based on the genetic profile of the 11,000-year-old so-called Cheddar Man skeleton found in England.
Nehlen was shunned by mainstream conservatives after he made negative comments about Jews, including an opinion that “American Jews” were the driving force behind U.S. involvement in Middle East wars, which, he said, “have been fought for Israel.”
He later was kicked off the pro-free speech Gab platform after he posted personal information—so-called doxxing—of another user, which is banned on Gab.
Farrakhan is a Nation of Islam leader, who has preached black separatism and has frequently made anti-Semitic remarks, including referring to Jews as “termites.”
