Instagram Is the Alt-Right's New Favorite Haven

[DonViejo]

Instagram hosts accounts from prominent right-wingers who have already been banned from Twitter and Facebook.

Will Sommer
10.30.18 4:08 AM ET

Alt-right social network Gab shuttered itself over the weekend after one of its users allegedly killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue and announced the attack on the site. But many far-right personalities still have access to a much bigger online home: Instagram.

As other social networks crack down on right-wing extremists, Instagram has become a surprising refuge for far-right figures who have somehow managed to avoid being banned from that site as well. Perhaps most remarkably, at least one of the right-wing figures present on Instagram has already been jettisoned from the social network’s own parent company, Facebook.

Tech giants like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter made headlines earlier this year when they finally banned Infowars chief Alex Jones after years of promoting dangerous conspiracy theories. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly debated the decision to ban Jones’ pages intensely, before ultimately barring him and Infowars from the site (Jones has retained a personal account on Facebook). But over on Instagram, which Zuckerberg’s company owns, Jones’ official account is still up. So is the account for the Infowars store, which Jones uses to hawk pills like “Brain Force Plus.”

Jones hasn’t toned it down on Instagram, which appears to be his last major social network outlet after Twitter suspended a number of accounts Infowars was using to evade the ban earlier this month. In one post, Jones compares Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) to a series of ticks.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/instagram-is-the-alt-rights-new-favorite-haven?ref=home