MENLO PARK, CA—In an effort to finally crack down on individuals who promote harm to the tech company’s good name, Facebook banned a number of extremists from its platforms Thursday after designating them exceedingly dangerous to its public reputation. “We strive to keep Facebook faithful to our founding vision of a world where ideas can be shared freely, but a line must be drawn at endangering the public image Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sanders have spent billions of dollars to painstakingly curate,” said spokesperson Alan Wedge, adding that removing provocateurs such as Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, and Milo Yiannopoulos was intended to send a message that Facebook will not tolerate bad PR. “Pages like InfoWars have been used to spread conspiracy theories that negatively affected families in Sandy Hook and had other real-world consequences, like damaging Facebook shareholder value and hurting public opinion of Facebook’s executive board, who are more vulnerable today than ever. It’s when someone uses our social network to incite hatred against our properties that we step in and declare ‘Please, for the love of God, don’t say Facebook is a terrible website.’” At press time, Facebook vowed to begin focusing more efforts on combating the negative perception of how Instagram has handled Russian misinformation campaigns.

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