</s>New York (CNN Business) Facebook announced Thursday that it had designated some high-profile people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who's notorious for using anti-Semitic language, and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as "dangerous" and said it will be purging them from its platforms.

Facebook FB Jones and his media outlet InfoWars had previously been banned fromin August 2018, but had maintained a presence on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. On Thursday, Jones and InfoWars will be barred from Instagram as well.

Other people banned on Thursday included Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018, and fringe right-wing media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson.

"We've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN Business. "The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today."

A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business the company goes through a lengthy process and takes into consideration a number of factors before determining an individual to be "dangerous."

Read More</s>Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, others banned from Facebook and Instagram

The bans come as Facebook has pledged to do more to eliminate hate speech on its platform.</s>Facebook said on Thursday it was banning Alex Jones and other controversial U.S. political personalities for violating the social media company’s policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.”

Most of the individuals whose accounts are being removed are popular figures on the far right, including commentators Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Paul Joseph Watson.

Facebook also said it is banning Paul Nehlen, an avowed white supremacist who ran for Congress in 2018, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has preached black separatism and referred to Jews as “termites.”

The company will remove any accounts, pages, groups and events associated with the banned individuals, both on its core social network and its photo-sharing app Instagram. It says it bans any users who promote violence or hate.

However, Facebook stopped short of prohibiting other users from praising or supporting the banned individuals on its platforms, as it has done for militant groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the past.

Hours after his account disappeared, videos of Louis Farrakhan were still visible on Instagram among the 17,000 posts with the hashtag #louisfarrakhan, including a video where he defends his descriptions of Jews.

“If it is truth, then it is not anti-Semitic,” he says in the clip.

Facebook announced the ban before removing the affected accounts, giving the account owners time to redirect their thousands of followers to other channels before the accounts disappeared, as captured in screen shots by BuzzFeed journalist Ryan Mac.

Alex Jones, who has promoted conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school shooting and hosted Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes on his show, quickly opened a new account and live-streamed himself talking about the ban, CNBC reported.

Infowars, the website run by Jones, posted a response saying that the ban “… amounts to editorial control over user content – and a donation in kind to the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.”

Social media companies have an uneasy history with voices on the far right, struggling for years to decide how to handle extremist content even as its purveyors used the services to amass followers and catapult themselves into the mainstream.

The result has often been haphazard enforcement of policies: Facebook removed pages associated with Jones and his Infowars website starting last year, but left up his personal profile, for example.

Apple, Google parent Alphabet, and Twitter also banned Infowars last year.

The companies have faced backlash over their suspensions of accounts from conservatives, who accuse them of censorship and bias. Civil rights groups say social media giants have failed to confront extremism.

Facebook says it enforces its rules without prejudice. It tightened those policies further last month with a decision to ban praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism.</s>Facebook has banned Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and right-wing personalities Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer from its main site and Instagram, alleging they have violated the company’s ban against hate and violence.

Jones had previously been banned from Facebook, but not from Instagram.

According to a statement from Facebook, the banned accounts violated the company’s policy against dangerous individuals and organizations.

The statement adds that the company has “always banned” people or groups that it determines proclaim a violent or hateful mission, or who are engaged in acts of hate or violence, regardless of their political ideology.</s>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and others from its main service and from Instagram, saying they violated the company's ban against hate and violence.

The company said Thursday that it has also banned extreme right-wing figures Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and the conservative conspiracy site Infowars. Jones was already banned from Facebook but not from Instagram.</s>Facebook banned Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, Paul Joseph Watson, Paul Nehlen, Louis Farrakhan and Infowars on Thursday over violations of its policies against "dangerous individuals and organizations." The ban includes the removal of Pages and Groups representing the users. It also extends to Facebook's other services and platforms, including Instagram.

"We've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology," Facebook said in a statement. "The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today."

This isn't the first time pages related to Jones have been removed from Facebook. Jones was placed under a 30-day ban last year for violating community standards. Four pages associated with the right-wing conspiracy theorist, who also runs Infowars, were subsequently removed. Infowars and Jones have faced bans on other social media platforms, including YouTube and Twitter.

Infowars is a common thread tying together nearly all of the users banned Thursday. Watson got his start at Infowars and has been associated with the site for more than 15 years.

Infowars has championed Nehlen, who was previously banned by Twitter. Loomer, a far-right activist known for her Russia-related conspiracy theories, is frequently praised on Infowars and has appeared as a guest, as has Yiannopoulos. The former Breitbart tech editor has also been banned from Twitter and Patreon.

Farrakhan, a frequent target of Infowars, is the leader of the Nation of Islam, which the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a hate group, citing its "deeply racist, anti-semitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric."</s>(CNN) — Facebook announced Thursday afternoon that it had designated some high-profile people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who’s notorious for using anti-Semitic language, and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as “dangerous” and said it will be purging them from its platforms.

Jones and his media outlet InfoWars had previously been banned from Facebook in in August 2018, but had maintained a presence on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. On Thursday, Jones and InfoWars will be barred from Instagram as well.

Other people banned Thursday include fringe right-wing media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson. Also included are Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018.

“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN Business. “The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”

A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business the company goes through a lengthy process and takes into consideration a number of factors before determining an individual to be “dangerous.”

The Facebook spokesperson said such factors include whether the person or organization has ever called for violence against individuals based on race, ethnicity, or national origin; whether the person has been identified with a hateful ideology; whether they use hate speech or slurs in their about section on their social media profiles; and whether they have had pages or groups removed from Facebook for violating hate speech rules.

In some instances, when Facebook bans an individual or organization, it also restricts others from expressing praise or support for them on its platforms, the spokesperson said, adding that the company continues to view such action as the correct approach. That policy may not apply to any or all of the people banned Thursday, however.

The spokesperson added that Facebook will remove groups, pages and accounts created to represent the banned individuals when it knows the individual is participating in the effort.</s>Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and others from its main service and from Instagram, saying they violated the company's ban against hate and violence.

The company said Thursday that it has also banned right-wing extremists Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer, along with Jones' site, Infowars. Facebook has previously banned Jones from its flagship service, but not Instagram.

For years, social media companies have been under pressure from civil rights groups to clamp down on hate speech on their services.

Facebook says the newly banned accounts violated its policy against dangerous individuals and organizations. The company says it has "always banned" people or groups that proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence, regardless of political ideology.</s>Alex Jones and Louis Farrakhan have been banned from Facebook and Instagram

Facebook has banned Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan and other "dangerous individuals" from its main service and Instagram.

The accounts of right-wing extremists Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer were also removed, along with Mr Jones' far-right politics website, Infowars, the company said.

Facebook said the newly-banned accounts violated its policy on hate and violence.

"We've always banned individuals or organisations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology," the company said in a statement.

"The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today."

Mr Jones was suspended from Facebook for 30 days last year under rules against bullying and hate speech, and he was banned from Twitter permanently.

A few weeks later, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify removed all content by Mr Jones for violating their policies.

However he remained active on Instagram, where his account recently pushed a conspiracy theory about former vice president Joe Biden.

Facebook has cited instances of dehumanising language about immigrants, Muslims and transgender people on Mr Jones' accounts, as well as violence glorification, as examples of hate and speech policy violations.

Social media companies have been under pressure from civil rights groups to clamp down on hate speech on their services.

Following the deadly white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, South Carolina, in 2017, Facebook, Paypal and Google began banishing extremist groups and individuals who identified as or supported white supremacists.

It is not clear what events led to Thursday's announcement, though Facebook has recently been under pressure to rid its service of hate and extremist content.

Last month, the company extended its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.

When asked to comment on the bans, British writer and ex-Breitbart News editor Mr Yiannopoulous emailed only: "You're next."

Mr Jones shared an angry video during a live stream of his show on his Infowars website.

"They didn't just ban me. They just defamed us. Why did Zuckerberg even do this?" Mr Jones said, referring the Facebook chief executive.

He also referred to himself as a victim of "racketeering" by "cartels".

"There's a new world now, man, where they're banning everybody and then they tell Congress nobody is getting banned," he said.

Mr Watson, an English YouTube personality and conspiracy theorist, tweeted that he was not given a reason why his account was removed and that he "broke none of their rules".

US rapper Snoop Dogg shared an angry video response to American black nationalist and minister Mr Farrakhan's ban, who is the leader of the religious group Nation of Islam (NOI).

"Facebook and Instagram just banned a minister, Louis Farrakhan - I want to know for what?

"All he ever do was tell the truth."

Mr Farrakhan, Mr Nehlen and Ms Loomer have not yet commented on the account bans.
Facebook and Instagram ban political figures Alex Jones, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Paul Nehlen, David Duke and Laura Loomer, from their platforms and remove their pages for allegedly engaging in "violence and hate".