Right-wing troll Milo Yiannopoulos banned from Facebook for hate speech.
The social media giant designated a group of high-profile people as “dangerous” and removed them from Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram.
“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” Facebook said in a statement.
“The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”
Facebook denied the decisions were political, saying the banned individuals repeatedly violated policies around hate speech and promoting violence.
A spokesperson told CNN deciding factors included whether the person or organisation has called for violence against individuals based on race or ethnicity; their previous identification with a hateful ideology; and history of having pages or groups removed from Facebook for violating hate speech rules.
Twitter permanently banned Yiannopoulos in 2016 after accusations he encouraged racist abuse against actress Leslie Jones.
He received advance notice about the Facebook and Instagram ban and in a post to followers attempted to redirect them to other platforms.
Milo Yiannopoulos denied Australian visa
Milo Yiannopoulos, previously linked to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and last June he sent threatening text messages to journalists that read, “I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight”.
He lost his job as editor of right-wing news site Breitbart in February 2017 for comments defending child sexual abuse and in 2017 famously urged Australians to vote “no” for same-sex marriage just months after marrying his own husband.
Yiannopoulos’ 2017 tour of Australia saw violent clashes between left- and right-wing protesters, including a violent brawl in Victoria which required police to intervene and a $50,000 bill from Victoria Police that Yiannopoulos hasn’t paid.
In March, Australian immigration Minister David Coleman denied Milo Yiannopoulos an Australia visa over the right-wing troll’s “appalling” comments on the Christchurch mosque shooting.
The ban came after several Liberal MPs including Tim Wilson and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson earlier argued the government should allow Yiannopoulous entry to Australia for his tour on free speech grounds.
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