Trump criticizes Facebook for banning Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other far-right agitators



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The President shared more than a dozen tweets on the subject Friday night and Saturday morning. And he has conveniently avoided the fact that some of the banned users are extremists who make their living by deceiving their fans.

His positions were a rallying cry, resentful of Big Tech. He said: "Social media is getting worse for conservatives!"

But Facebook (FB)leaders say that it has nothing to do with ideology or political party – it's a security issue.

"We have always banned individuals or organizations inciting violence and hatred, regardless of their ideology," a Facebook spokesman told CNN Business when the bans came into effect on Thursday.

The action affected the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, known for using anti-Semitic language; Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully presented to Congress in 2016 and 2018; and the theoretician of the far-right plot Alex Jones.

Jones and his InfoWars media had already been banned from Facebook, but had maintained a Facebook presence on Instagram. Jones and InfoWars have also been kicked out of Instagram, although questions remain about how strict the ban is.

Other forbidden people are the marginal personalities of the right-wing media, Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer.

The president is particularly supportive of Watson, an InfoWars personality known for spreading misinformation. (In the past, Watson peddled conspiracy theories about the unsolved assassination of DNC staff member Seth Rich about the September 11 terrorist attacks and "chemtrails".)

On Friday night, Trump tweeted about Watson's ban and Saturday morning he retweeted a video of Watson criticizing Facebook about it.

He also retweeted a weird video on Islam from a user named "Deep State Exposed". And he called Twitter, on Twitter, for blocking the account of James Woods, actor and right-wing personality.

A Twitter (tWTR)The spokesman confirmed that Woods' account will be restored if he removes a marked tweet that violates the site's rules.

For the president and his allies, all this helps to create a familiar scenario. Republican leaders and right-wing media strongly accused social media giants of bias and censorship, as companies took steps to reduce the toxic content of their sites.

The President has repeatedly chosen examples to defend his arguments against sites. Friday night, he said that "Diamond and Silk", a pro-Trump duo, have been "treated so horribly by Facebook" and "we are looking at".

"I continue to monitor the censorship of US citizens on social networks," Trump said in a separate tweet. "This is the United States of America – and we have what we call FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are watching and watching closely, !!"

Users do not enjoy the freedom of expression protected by the government on private platforms such as Facebook.

The president recently invited Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to the White House for a meeting on the rules of Twitter and other topics.

A few hours before the April 23 meeting, Trump complained (on Twitter) that the site was "very discriminatory" and did not "treat me well as a Republican". He accused the company of "constantly wiping people off the list" – an apparent reference to Twitter's efforts to eliminate robots and other false followers who artificially inflate the number of users, including those of the president.

The claims of Big Tech censorship have also made their way to Congress. Legislators have held various hearings this year on the alleged practice of "filtering through social media". At the hearings, Republicans like Steve King, of Iowa, have quoted extreme right-wing media articles as the Gateway Pundit to blame social media companies for bias against conservatives . At a hearing last year, the duo "Diamond & Silk" was even invited to testify.

Politicians who make these complaints understand that the story resonates with the Conservative base and mutes it.

That's what the President's Twitter feed looked like on Friday night and Saturday morning. After having retweeted many critics of Big Tech, he asked when the media "will excuse to have me knowingly told the story of Russia Collusion Delusion also false?"

Then he suggested that he likes the idea of some Prohibition of social media – if they have affected sources, it can not stand.

He asked: "Why @without an hour, @washingtonpost, @CNN, @MSNBC are they allowed to be on Twitter and Facebook? A lot of what they do is false information!"

Twitter and Facebook spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who was closely monitoring the role of the social media company in spreading misinformation and insufficient control of content, called on regulators to play "a more active role "in setting rules for the Internet.

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