Facebook Bans ‘Dangerous Individuals’ Cited for ‘Hate Speech’

SAN FRANCISCO—Facebook Inc. said on May 2 it was banning Alex Jones and other politically controversial U.S. personalities for violating the social media company’s policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.”

Most but not all of the individuals whose accounts are being removed are popular figures on the right side of politics, including commentators Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, and Paul Joseph Watson.

Facebook also said it is banning Paul Nehlen, an avowed white supremacist who ran for Congress in 2018, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has preached black separatism and referred to Jews as “termites.”

The company 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.”