Instagram has not only banned Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and Milo Yiannopoulos — they have also now banned fans and friends from posting photos with them as well.
On Thursday, Facebook and Instagram banned the prominent right-wing figures for “spreading dangerous ideology.”
The following day, photos of the figures were removed from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, for violating the “community guidelines.”
I posted this picture of me with PJW, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Laura Loomer on Instagram yesterday.
Instagram took it down.
It is now against their “Community Guidelines” to post pictures with people who they have labeled “Dangerous”
This is terrifying. pic.twitter.com/XYZOKKUFxH
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 3, 2019
“I posted this picture of me with PJW, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Laura Loomer on Instagram yesterday,” a conservative activist who goes simply by Alex, or “Alx,” posted on Twitter. “Instagram took it down. It is now against their “Community Guidelines” to post pictures with people who they have labeled ‘Dangerous’ This is terrifying.”
The activist told the Gateway Pundit that he had posted the photos to support his friends who were being censored and was shocked to see it them taken down.
“I posted the picture to spread awareness and show my support for those who were censored and I added ‘Will I get Banned too for posting this’ as sort of a joke. Then when I saw that they actually took my post down this morning, I was shocked,” he said.
It is clear that the intent of these platforms is not just to silence the right-wing thoughts that they deem to be unsavory, they want to unperson the speakers entirely — as if they don’t exist at all.
