Far-right website promoted vaccine disinformation and mass arrests of the left, with more followers than Infowars
before it was banned.
Facebook on Sunday removed the page for Natural
News, a far-right conspiracy
outlet that had nearly 3 million
followers. Facebook didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Natural News’ founder Mike Adams wrote on fellow-right wing conspiracy site Infowars that his site was
“permanently banned” from posting. He told the gateway pundit,
another far-right site, that the apparent ban is proof of a conspiracy against
his website.
The Daily Beast reported on Saturday that
Natural News and its founder had a history of pushing hoaxes and calling for mass arrests against
the left. Before the ban, Natural News had more Facebook followers than Infowars at its peak. Natural
News used the page to push its trademark combination of natural remedies
and far-right conspiracy
theories, as well as misinformation about vaccines.
Facebook has previously prohibited similar
pages, as well as those
for Infowars—a move criticized by the
right as “censorship” by Silicon Valley.
In May, Facebook issued a new ban against Jones, plus bans against far-right figures like Paul
Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, and Milo Yiannopoulos, as well as anti-Semitie and
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
(The bans additionally applied
to Facebook-owned Instagram.)
“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that
promote or engage in violence
and hate, regardless of ideology,”
a Facebook spokesperson said of the bans in May. “The process for evaluating potential
violators is extensive and it’s what led us to
our decision to remove these accounts today.”
Facebook has cracked down on conspiracy and
extremist content over the past year. In August, it prohibited Infowars and its
founder Alex Jones, although Infowars seems to have used similar-sounding pages like “Newswars” to promote its content after the ban.
Facebook also began taking stronger actions against anti-vaccination
hoaxes this year, banning anti-vax
ads in March. Those ads previously targeted women in measles-stricken areas,
The Daily Beast revealed.