The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group was banned from Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday for promoting violence against liberals and posting racist images.
The Daily Beast reports that the street-fighting club has recently come under scrutiny from law enforcement and various social media platforms, after members of the group assaulted protestors in New York City earlier this month.
Five members of the organization were arrested after shouting homophobic slurs and beating protestors. The Proud Boys founder, Gavin McInnes describes his organization as “Western Chauvinists.”
Jason Kessler, one of the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was reportedly once a member of the Proud Boys, according to Business Insider.
Facebook and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook cited their rules against hate groups as the reasoning behind the ban, and the move will strip the white supremacist organization of it’s primary channel for publicity and recruitment of new members.
Facebook bans pages of far-right Proud Boys after New York attack https://t.co/sFMFhe72gE pic.twitter.com/6p7GlRoVln
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 1, 2018
In a statement released by Facebook a representative said, “Our team continues to study trends in organized hate and hate speech and works with partners to better understand hate organizations as they evolve. We ban these organizations and individuals from our platforms and also remove all praise and support when we become aware of it.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the Proud Boys as a hate group and has called their private Facebook groups, “ideological echo chambers.”
Facebook stated they will continue to monitor these types of organizations pages and act accordingly.
“We will continue to review content, Pages, and people that violate our policies, take action against hate speech and hate organizations to help keep our community safe.”