Facebook has permanently banned Infowars for using language that is derogatory towards Muslims, transgender people and immigrants in a shocking intensification of Big Tech’s censorship purge.

Facebook announced in a blog post that the four main Infowars pages were “unpublished for repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes.”

“More content from the same Pages has been reported to us — upon review, we have taken it down for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” states the post.

Facebook has permanently BANNED Infowars. For unspecified "hate speech". They didn't even tell us what the offending posts were. This sets a chilling precedent for free speech. To all other conservative news outlets – you are next. The great censorship purge has truly begun. pic.twitter.com/v7Yo9hI0q3 — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018

Facebook did not specifically state which posts or videos violated their policies or in what way.

The termination of the pages follows an intensive lobbying campaign by the likes of CNN and BuzzFeed to pressure Facebook into banning Infowars.

A reminder that Facebook banned Infowars after lobbying by both CNN and Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL). This isn't "just a private company," this is political censorship.https://t.co/JHKP1vnQ3k — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018

Last month, Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL) also pressured Facebook to ban Infowars during a hearing into social media censorship on Capitol Hill.

Wikileaks responded to the news with a warning that the ban represents a “global anti-trust problem.”

“Infowars says it has been banned by Facebook for unspecified ‘hate speech’. Regardless of the facts in this case, the ability of Facebook to censor rival publishers is a global anti-trust problem, which along with San Francisco cultural imperialism, reduces political diversity,” said the whistleblower organization in a tweet.

Infowars says it has been banned by Facebook for unspecified 'hate speech'. Regardless of the facts in this case, the ability of Facebook to censor rivial publishers is a global anti-trust problem, which along with San Francisco cultural imperialism, reduces political diversity. https://t.co/xb5oY2JHzy — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 6, 2018

In a related story, Apple also announced that it had removed the five main Infowars podcasts from its directory.

What we are witnessing is an ideological purge intended to re-define the very concept of free speech.

IMPORTANT click here to watch Infowars live. Also use this link to download the censored podcast: http://xml.nfowars.net/Alex.rss

If free speech does not include controversial/unpopular/offensive speech, it doesn’t exist.

A society in which free speech doesn’t exist is doomed to collapse into authoritarianism.

The argument that Facebook and other social media giants are “private companies” and can do what they like is also a complete misnomer.

Big Tech have formed a monopoly by swallowing up content and they are now working hand in hand with the establishment media and leftist politicians to silence independent voices.

Whether you love or loathe Infowars, this now confirms that Big Tech is working with legacy media and lawmakers to silence independent media.

In places like Russia, the government shuts down the press, in America, CNN, Apple and Facebook fulfil that role.

Please continue to pressure lawmakers into enacting real solutions to secure digital rights and free speech online by circulating our master guide to online censorship and signing our petition to uphold free speech.

Now that Facebook has banned Infowars, it will be very interesting to see which conservative news outlets and commentators speak out and which ones remain complicit in silence. Whatever you think of Infowars, they're coming for you next. — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

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