by Rob Shimshock
Twitter suspended libertarian commentator Gavin McInnes and his fraternal organization, the Proud Boys, Friday evening.
The social media giant claimed that McInnes, who hosts “Get Off My Lawn” and “CRTV Tonight” on CRTV, as well as the activist group he founded, violated its “violent extremist groups” policy, reported BuzzFeed News.
“We can confirm that these accounts have been suspended from Twitter and Periscope for violating our policy prohibiting violent extremist groups,” Twitter spokeswoman Raki Wane told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Nothing more to share at this time.”
The company struck not only McInnes and the national Proud Boys account from its platform, but also regional Proud Boys chapters like @ProudBoysCA and ProudBoysOhio. It is unknown whether Twitter suspended the accounts temporarily or permanently.
“Gavin McInnes has repeatedly and clearly denounced racism, the alt-right, and neo-Nazis,” CRTV president Gaston Mooney said. “Twitter’s censorship of such a strong voice for freedom for people of all races and creeds is an assault on American values.”
“It goes without saying #ProudBoys have NOTHING to do with this and won’t go near it,” the CRTV host before he was suspended Friday, referring to the Unite the Right 2 rally planned for Washington, D.C. on Sunday. “We are a multi-racial group that eschews the alt-right.”
McInnes stipulated his opposition to Nazis and the alt-right in his Twitter bio, where he also said he was pro-gay and supported the free market and closed borders. The VICE News founder and former Fox News commentator thinks that the post below triggered the bans.
Twitter received backlash from left-wing activists earlier in August for refusing to ban InfoWars host and publisher Alex Jones after Facebook, Apple, and YouTube removed the content creator from their respective platforms.
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Rob Shimshock is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Rob on Twitter and Facebook.
