It just got a little bit harder for famous people who famously hate other people to keep in touch with their friends from high school, as Facebook has banned a number of high-profile accounts that it says “promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology.” As reported by CNN, the two most prominent banned figures are Alex Jones (chili-chomping, hate-spewing asshole) and Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakhn (who, as CNN puts it, is “notorious for using anti-Semitic language). There’s also failed anti-Semitic politician Paul Nehlen and “fringe right-wring media personalities” like Laura Loomer, Paul Joseph Watson, and Milo Yiannopoulos, who at this point has probably been banned from more platforms than pretty much anyone. Speaking of, Jones and his InfoWars site had already been banned from Facebook, but they continued to operate accounts on Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) and now they’re being banned on that site as well.
The CNN story also notes that Facebook has previously prevented users from “expressing praise or support” for pages that have been banned for promoting violence, but it’s still unclear if it will do that in this case. Either way, Facebook says that it will band groups, pages, and events if it comes out that one of these banned individuals is “participating in the effort,” so some jackass out there might be able to make a page about how much they support Alex Jones, but if Alex Jones says “hey dipshits, join that Facebook group” on his stupid radio show or whatever, then it most likely would get moderated by Facebook.
CNN also points out that some people are questioning why Facebook announced the bans all at once, rather than simply executing then when it became clear that the accounts had violated the site’s terms. The obvious guess is that Facebook wanted to some good press, but to that we say, as always: We don’t like to get played. So, in the interest of cosmic balance, let’s remember the time—not even six months ago—when it came out that Facebook was just gleefully throwing everyone’s data at big companies, whether they claimed to want it or not. Or how about a month before that when Facebook admitted to working with a consulting firm that fed negative stories about Facebook critics to a right-wing news site, including some about George Soros that were accused of being anti-Semitic.
110 Comments
Hot Take Alert -Fuck those guys.
“Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakhn (who, as CNN puts it, is “notorious for using anti-Semitic language).”
Is he still around?? Is he still actively spewing anti-semetic shit, or is this just so they can claim to be Fair and Balanced ™.
Honestly asking.
I can’t answer your question, but I had the same reaction. Most everyone else on the list has been active within the last few years, and I honestly haven’t heard much about Farrakhan since the ‘90s (seriously, the last time I heard him referred to was on “Seinfeld” when Jerry eats the black/white cookie that makes him sick). Strikes me as they threw him on there to appease the Right, i.e., that ‘both-sides-do-it’ false equivalency shit.
Which is an especially dumb tactic since, uh, Farrakhan is far right. But hey, the right and centre, the brain geniouses that they are, both like to paint him as a both sides guy because he’s black.
He’s socially conservative and hates Jews but he’s still very much left wing on other issues and has only associated with and supported democrats. On the very extreme left you’ll find a fair amount of people who hate jews and believe all kinds of conspiracy theories about them. Also in the older black community it’s not exactly rare to find die-hard democrats who are also very socially conservative. African Americans voted against gay marriage in CA at a much greater rate than whites despite the African Americans being much much more likely to be democrats than white voters.
There’s also plenty of examples of far left socialist governments being very anti Semitic. I’m talking real socialist governments btw not Scandanavian regulated capitalism.
Also if you look at polls specifically of white democrats and black democrats you’ll find black democrats are much more likely to oppose strong abortion rights than white democrats.
Name one issue Farrakhan is “very much left wing” on. Literally one.
He was in the news pretty recently for calling jews Satanic during a speech two of the founders of the Women’s March were at. They openly supported him and have faced a pretty big backlash from moderate dems. He gives controversial speeches frequently still and still some democrats unfortunately associate with him.
Farrakhan is not the antithesis of the far right, he’s just someone else’s far right. Basically, Donald Trump is the Louis Farrakhan of White America.
He’s around enough to be there to ban. As far as how prominent he is today, there are still people who listen to his bullshit. And even if he was just somebody’s bigoted great-grandpa shouting into the void, hatemongering is hatemongering. Enforce the terms of service and ban them all.
last I heard of him was during In Living Color days
The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the Nation of Islam a hate group.
Yep he’s still preaching from that monstrosity of a building on Chicago’s South Side and FYI he’s also anti-LGBTQ to the core. I hate him.
Look. We all remember In Living Color. A name is a name.
Yeah he’s still around. There was a pretty big controversy less than a year ago when a couple of the Women’s March founders openly supported him and even attended a rally of his whete he referred to “Satanic Jews”. Maxine Waters was with him pretty recently and she’s a pretty high profile congress womann given she chairs a committee.
Had more followers than most of the right-wing names you see in stories on hate. Hell, had more followers than Infowars when he make the “termites” comment, and a factor of magnitude more than David Duke.
I’ll say this: when a 90s rap song begins with an air raid siren and a Farrakhan sample, it’s gonna be a fuckin’ banger.
Is he still around??
Barely.
Is he still actively spewing anti-semetic shit
Yes.
Farrakhan has weirdly attached himself to the Church of Scientology lately as well, in case we didn’t already have reason enough to think he’s a schmuck.
That’s interesting and not in a good way.
He was already in charge of Black Scientology, wasn’t he?(Nation of Islam was started by a career conman who faked being black, and there’s stuff in there about a mothership orbiting the earth that’s going to one day take the superior African race home and drop nuclear bombs on all the white devils)
I hate those guys and FB, but no one should be happy about this story.
Disagree: they are shit stains, and Facebook should, being its own company and all, be fully allowed to say whom they do and don’t want on their platform.
whys that?
Has anyone here ever had a real face-to-face conversation with someone who believes InfoWars stories are true? Like the lizard people and gay frog stuff and all that. If so, how’d that go?
I drove behind a Lincoln with an Info Wars bumper sticker last week. That is as close as I dared get.
Same. I think they might live next door, actually 😐
Yeah I saw a van with one.
Yep!
I hired a tree doctor a few months ago. And when I was talking to him, he started up about it.He was a prepper as well. And in a militia. He was totally ready to defend himself. Of course, he weighed well over 300 pounds and would be the first person killed as food in a doomsday situation.
There’s an informal (I think) group of preppers in my neighborhood, Northern California, east of the Bay. They occasionally have drills in the park nearby – physical conditioning and such. No guns, but some running and combat practice.And they are, to a man, hugely overweight, in really bad shape and at least three of them smoke like chimneys. Oh, they all have motorcycles so I guess after the apocalypse they’ll LOOK scary and tough. Until their gas runs out.
The carbon gas..? 😏
Bwahahaha!
I ain’t eating that fatty meat. We’ll feed him to the dogs instead.
“I shot him to eat him. But then I discovered his pockets were filled with Skittles.”
I hired a tree doctor a few months ago. And when I was talking to him, he started up about it.He was a prepper as well. And in a militia. He was totally ready to defend himself.You forgot to say you fired him on the spot.
I’ve never met an InfoWars fan that wasn’t surrounded by red flags. So, no.
But they were false so it didn’t matter.
~15 years ago I worked with a guy. At the time he was cool, not political, toy knowledge, unless it had to do with weed. He moved to California and started working in the film industry, which you would think would push someone away from Alex Jones. Somehow ruined the relationship he was in, and then pretty much let go of reality and went full InfoWars. I haven’t unfriended him, but he does not show up on my Facebook feed anymore.
My aunt in Jacksonville, Fl who thinks Fox News is too liberal and blames Obama for her divorce (that happened in 1991). Does that help?
Oh, I gotta know more about that.
The Obama thing? Really not much to tell, dinner table rant. As soon as it tumbled out of her mouth all the other conservatives at the table (My dad and her other siblings) just silently shoveled food in their mouths. I’ve lost track of all the absurd shit that she’s said, but I’m convinced she’s never called on it because as the end of the day she’s still a straight ticket GOP voter and that’s all that counts (but if she were a lefty loon…)
Ahhh… The good-ol’ Florida!Carrying the baton of Deep South all along.
I’m shocked she hasn’t drinked bleached yet because the warnings on the labels are hiding the truth that it makes your a superhero.
This anecdote requires more details.
Then her ex-husband should thank Obama.
Undoubtedly his first thought every morn.
“thanks obama”
and blames Obama for her divorce (that happened in 1991) Curious as to her math on that one.
To be fair, Obama was alive in 1991.
And this was in Chicago. Perhaps she’s not as crazy as she seems…
The closest I’ve ever been is seeing “9/11 was an Inside Job” bumper stickers on my commute home, with Jones blaring loudly out of the open windows. So there are definitely people buying his taint wipes and chicken milkshakes, if not his day-to-day claims.My guess is that if you encountered one of those people in the wild, they would appear deceptively normal right up to the point where they’re like “yeah crisis actors bruh.”
Chicken Milkshakes is a great mid-90’s band name.
I used to work at a dance studio and the owner believed everything he said and was also totally involved in the weird supplement and cellphone pyramid schemes he had going on.I quit after I found out that she carried a loaded gun into the studio every day. Any parent I knew and had contact info for knew about the gun in her purse as well before I was done.
I mean, he was actually correct about the gay frogs thing.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160203-feminized-fish-endocrine-disruption-hormones-wildlife-refuges/
Closest I’ve come is watching Richard Linklater movies.
he was so hot in Dazed and Confused
I had a workmate/local acquaintance who I knew was a Republican, but one day after an innocuous question, she did the full birther spiel, and I slowly backed away.
My celly when I was in prison was a huge Infowars fan.
I work with someone who listened to it all the time.He’s the most self-centered shit-stirrer I’ve ever met.
I strongly suspect one my coworker’s believes this shit. I remember him going on and on about chem trails a few years back, so gay frogs and Pizzagate would not be much of a stretch for this guy. I refuse to give him an outlet to share his paranoia, so our conversations generally revolve around topics such as the guy who knocked up his daughter is a stand-up guy for asking my coworker’s permission to marry his daughter 8-months into the pregnancy.
I had an Uber passenger in my car a while back (I drive on the weekends) who got in, buckled his seatbelt, looked at the sky, and said, ‘Man, look at all the chem trails today!’ I ignored him for the most part, but he rambled about about a bunch of other weird shit for the rest of the ride.When he got out, he leaned back in and asked me if I knew where to get any meth. I am not joking.
I ignored him for the most part,
Why?but he rambled about about a bunch of other weird shit for the rest of the ride.
I would’ve thrown him the fuck out right away. Stupid can be contagious.
If you watch the Joe Rogan podcast with Alex Jones on it’s obvious that he doesn’t really believe that stuff. He’s just a profiteer trolling and some idiots take it seriously. He “thought” the Bush admin was behind 9/11 back when that was a profitable position to take. Now he’s focused on right wing conspiracies because he realized there’s more old suckers who buy those.
The tin foil hats fuck up my cell reception so I stopped trying.
yes, and badly. Its like a one way street of bullshit. They don’t hear anything you say back, in my experience. Because I’m a gay frog I guess?
Went to high school in a deep red Bible Belt state. Mid-90’s, so I encountered a lot of wacko right wing conspiracy theories – young Earth, Clinton coming to take our guns…But even when I go back, I don’t run into any alt-right kind of people, though I do see them posting this crazy shit on facebook.
Yes. And the conversation was short because he just can’t be reasoned with. Funny thing is, you’d never know it about him. Nice friendly guy, who I get along with just fine. He’s my nephew’s father as well. One night we were talking and he started going on about Pizzagate. Alarm bells went off. I pressed him a little and all the other insance Infowars stuff started spewing out of his mouth. I just told him that I can’t talk to him about this stuff and moved on. I don’t engage crazy. But it certainly changed my opinion of him bigly.
Has anyone here ever had a real face-to-face conversation with someone who believes InfoWars stories are true?
I used to be friends with a guy who I wouldn’t be surprised if he does believe it all. It started with GamerGate, then he watched that Zeitgeist movie and started talking about 9/11 was an inside job, global conspiracies, etc. I stopped talking to him soon after that. About a year later, I checked his Twitter and he’d started a YouTube account where he’d rant about shit. I cut off contact with him before he went completely nuts, but I fully expect he’s way down the rabbit hole by now. He’d quit his job, claimed he made money trading on the market & lived off an inheritance for a few years. And then, surprise surprise, a few months after I stopped talking to him, he moved out of his place & moved back in with his mother (he was 32 at the time).
Yeah, I’ve known a few people over the years who were smart but fell prey to that kind of shit because they followed one or another conspiracy theory that didn’t seem completely absurd on its surface and got sucked in over time. Most of them have been cool as long as you completely avoid those topics. Although lately, that’s gotten harder, because even the ones that don’t like Trump still believe in Pizzagate and Qanon-adjacent “everyone’s a pedophile and every Hollywood movie is full of pedophile propaganda” shit.
I had a coworker who was *super* into the idea that the government controls the weather and that fluoride was mind control back when I delivered pizza in college. He would just bring it up out of nowhere. After a while I let him train new drivers, it was fun.
Course back in 2006 that shit just seemed like harmless insanity, now he could probably run for office and I’m thinking I should have ran him over with a car
Yes, giving the scum of the earth a platform to spew their garbage is SO 2016
I hope Public Enemy isn’t still down with Farrakhan.No opposition to them wearing black Wranglers and/or being rap stranglers, though.
I love Chuck D but sadly…At least I think he’s defending Farrakhan here, not sure how to feel about mud on america’s mudflaps.
The irony is that he is using Twitter to decry our “Bulsht Soc Med”
Well, that’s disappointing. Much like everything else.
Either way, Facebook says that it will band groups, pages, and events…Either way, that’s a concert I’m not buying tickets to.
Hate Aid.
“We are the right, we are the victims”
Concert for Bangladeath
They should really build their own platform if they expect not to moderated for promoting hate speech and violence. Oh yeah they’re all too fucking stupid. Enjoy 8chan you crazy dipshits.
Freedombook! It’ll happen. And when it does, the media will report on how sheltered the left is, and how it’s really the left that lives in it’s own bubble all the time.
Perhaps a romantic NYtimes piece about these wonderful people having economic anxiety thus their need to type in all caps.
Is 8chan a real thing, or is that just something people on the Twitterwebz say to signify “4chan, but turned up to 11.”
It exists. I think it was founded because 4chan made a minimal attempt to have standards.
They should just post on Stormfront or Nazis’R’us or something.
Shouldn’t that be 4Chan x 2.
*12
It’s real. It’s for people too racist and disgusting for 4chan, if that tells you anything about what type of place it is. It’s where the latest batch of right wing lunatics that shot up synagogues posted their twisted manifestos. I sincerely hope there are FBI agents monitoring that site 24 hours a day. I’m certainly not going to link it but if you’re curious you can find it and see for yourself.
They already have something called Gab.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab_(social_network)Gab is an American microblogging Internet service that is known for its mainly far-right user base.[8] The site has been described as “extremist friendly”[9] or a “safe haven”[10] for neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the alt-right.[9] The site allows its users to read and write multimedia messages of up to 3,000 characters, called “gabs”.[11] It has stated that conservative, libertarian, nationalist and populistinternet users were its target markets.[12]
They also have Voat, which is a Reddit clone.
Ive never watched it but pretty positive someone big as Alex Jones has his own website to post videos to. His crazy followers will still watch his videos and give him money. The whining he can do about being censored from Facebook will probably end up making him more money than he was before.
Banning the smaller less known extremists from social media will probably be an effective way to shut them down, but for someone as prominent as Alex Jones it might actually just help him.
…Reddit? I got downvoted yesterday for saying having slaves makes you a bad person
Getting banned from Facebook doesn’t strike me as much of a punishment.
I predict an Onion article about how Alex Jones has had so much free time since getting kicked off Facebook, he’s gotten in shape, started to read more, and taken up gardening as a hobby. Or possibly that since he’s no longer exposed to Alex Jones on Facebook, he’s started reading real news sources and realized what a fraud Alex Jones is.
Or possibly that since he’s no longer exposed to Alex Jones on Facebook,
he’s started reading real news sources and realized what a fraud Alex Jones is.
Fuck, that’s hilarious.
I banned myself from Facebook last year and I’ve never felt better.
True, but what do you want? Do you want people like Farrakhan locked up in prison simply for saying bigoted things?
I’m not sure anyone mentioned putting anyone in jail for the things they say. Facebook is a private company that has(finally) decided that they don’t want to host hate speech on their platform. Facebook is not the government.
OK, “fringe right-wring media personalities” might be my favorite journalistic Freudian slip of the day (though it’s a close call).Meanwhile, this admitted rapist is still on Facebook (et cetera), and the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is still, like, everywhere…
Oh no! Now how will I buy Milo’s vitamin supplements?
Oh no! Now how will I buy Milo’s vitamin supplements?
If you buy him dinner, he’s just give you some.
This only happened today?
Partial credit. They won’t really have an impact until they ban the most high-profile white supremacist of all, who just so happens to be the goddamn president.
I would just like to let everyone know that Alex Jones is a considerably more charismatic entertainer than anyone on late night currently.
Louis Farrakhan had a Facebook page?? Louis Farrakhan is still alive??!
Oh gosh, is it that time of year for the Right Wing professional victims to start earning their paycheck again?
Trying to stop hate on social media is like bailing out the boat with the hole still in the hull.