SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Thursday said it had barred Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, and other right-wing personalities from its service, in an escalation of its enforcement of its content policies.
The other people banned include: Louis Farrakhan, the outspoken black nationalist minister who has frequently been criticized for his anti-Semitic remarks; Milo Yiannopoulos, the provocateur and far-right media personality; and other, less-prominent but still controversial figures like Laura Loomer, Paul Joseph Watson and Paul Nehlen.
The company said they were barred from using Facebook and Instagram under Facebook’s policies against “dangerous individuals and organizations.”
“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” a Facebook spokeswoman 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.”
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Facebook has long had difficulty applying its rules consistently across the network of more than 2.7 billion people who regularly use Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The company has been criticized for allowing content from Mr. Jones and other far-right, fringe figures to exist on the site, and in recent months Facebook has decided to take down some of the more controversial accounts on the service.