Facebook: Began deleting accounts with violent or anti-Semitic rhetoric

The Facebook blocked yesterday several celebrities who promote extreme, violent, racist or anti-Semitic speech.

Αamong them the Louis Faracan, head of the organization "Nation of Islam" and Alex Jones website founder «info wars».

«We have always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hatred, whatever their ideology", Announced the American company, which permanently deleted the accounts and the content related to six personalities, considering that they fall into the category"of dangerous individuals and organisms».

The Facebook, like other social networking sites, are often criticized for not removing shocking or extreme content quickly enough.

The massacre at two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand by an extreme right-wing Australian has once again brought the issue to light as Brenton Tarant broadcast his attacks live on Facebook.

The latest ban also applies to Instagram, which belongs to Facebook.

Among the banned figures on the social networking site is 85-year-old Luis Farakan, head of the Nation of Islam, an organization founded in 1930. Its members are recognized by the bow tie they wear, as well as their extreme positions, which are often anti-Semitic and homophobic. "Hitler was a great man," Farakan said in a 1984 interview.

American rapper Snoop Dogg posted on Instagram two videos in support of Farakan, in which he insults Facebook.

Alex Jones, 45, is a well-known far-right conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars. He is best known for claiming that the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the United States, in which 26 people were killed, including 20 children, was directed by the APE-BPE, citing AFP.

Facebook users will no longer be able to post Infowars videos.

Paul Nillen, a Republican member of the American far right, was also targeted by the ban, as was Milo Gianopoulos, a British far-right white supremacist.

Also in the spotlight was Paul Joseph Watson, a young Briton who promotes conspiracy theories, whose extremist videos have millions of views on the Internet. On Twitter, Watson reacted by saying "a clear political persecution", stressing that he "has not violated any rules" of the site.

Finally, the American Laura Lumer, who is used to posting videos against Muslims. In November, Lumer was tied to a Twitter building in New York to protest the site's decision to block her posts.

The Facebook clarified that it will remove pages, groups and accounts created to represent these persons and will not allow the promotion of events in which they participate.

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