Facebook closed down 559 pages and 251 personal accounts on Thursday. Sputnik takes a look at the omnipotent website’s long track record of censorship.<\/p>\n
Facebook<\/a>\u00a0said on\u00a0Thursday, October 11, it was\u00a0closing pages<\/a>\u00a0which were “working to\u00a0mislead others about\u00a0who they are, and what they are doing.”<\/p>\n But\u00a0Jason Bassler, co-founder of\u00a0one of\u00a0the pages, The Free Thought Project,\u00a0told Sputnik<\/a>\u00a0it was set up\u00a0to counter “mainstream media’s bullsh*t narratives.”<\/p>\n “We were verified by\u00a0Facebook with\u00a0a little check mark next to\u00a0our name, so they know we are a legitimate organization\/outlet,” Mr. Bassler told Sputnik.<\/p>\n Fascistbook is censoring anarchists completely now, under the guise of being anti-spam. Hundreds of anarchist’s pages shut down #FacebookPurge<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/tvtXmClmJ0<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Lorie Meacham (@LorieMeacham) October 12, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n This is by\u00a0no means the first time Facebook has taken down\u00a0pages amid\u00a0controversy.<\/p>\n Alex Jones of\u00a0InfoWars Banned\u00a0\u2014 August 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n In August 2018 Facebook joined Apple, YouTube and Spotify in\u00a0banning conservative radio host Alex Jones, who runs the\u00a0Infowars<\/a>\u00a0website.<\/p>\n Facebook removed four pages\u00a0\u2014 the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page\u00a0\u2014 after\u00a0the social network imposed a 30-day ban on\u00a0Jones “for his role in\u00a0posting violating content to\u00a0these pages”.<\/p>\n ”More content from\u00a0the same pages has been reported to\u00a0us\u00a0\u2014 upon\u00a0review, we have taken it down\u00a0for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanising language to\u00a0describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” said Facebook.<\/p>\n Jones has floated several conspiracy theories about\u00a0various events, including…<\/p>\n\n