Facebook ban “dangerous” figures including Louis Farrakhan

Facebook has announced Thursday that it is banning a number of high profile accounts including Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopolous that have been associated with spreading hate speech.

Facebook has removed several accounts from its social network as well as Instagram.

Those accounts include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, host of InfoWars.com who had previously been removed from Facebook but has now had his Instagram presence wiped as well. InfoWars UK host Paul Joseph Watson, aka PrisonPlanet, was also removed from Facebook.

Far right personalities Milo Yiannopolous and Laura Loomer were also banned, as well as the leader of Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan and white supremacist Paul Nehlen.

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Facebook has also previously removed a number of accounts, many associated with the far right, including Britain First and Tommy Robinson.

The removals likely come in response to continued criticism against Facebook that it, as well as Facebook-owned Instagram, are becoming a hotbed for far hate figures and conspiracies theories. Mark Zuckerberg has publicly vowed a number of times this year to purge that type of behaviour from the social networking platform.

Facebook has stated that these individuals violated their policy concerning “dangerous individuals and organizations” and said it would continue its policy of banning accounts that either praise or support these figures on their platform.