Facebook Bans Natural News After Daily Beast Hit Piece
Peter D'Abrosca
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Facebook has removed the page of Natural News, dubbed a “conspiracy site” after The Daily Beast complained about the site’s presence on the tech giant’s platform Saturday.
“Natural News has nearly 3 million Facebook followers, more than Infowars and Alex Jones combined before Facebook banned them from the platform last summer,” Daily Beast said.
“You might never have clicked on a Natural News article, but you’ve probably felt its influence. The site is one of the largest brokers of far-right conspiracy theories, including disinformation about vaccines. Natural News has spent the past 10 years moving from relatively innocent claims about the benefits of herbal remedies, to full-blown culture war, with a side business of selling survivalist gear.”
Sunday, the site was removed from Facebook, which was followed by a gleeful victory lap in The Daily Beast.
“Facebook on Sunday removed the page for Natural News, a far-right conspiracy outlet that had nearly 3 million followers. Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment,” that report said.
“Natural News’ founder Mike Adams wrote on fellow-right wing conspiracy site Infowars that his site was ‘permanently banned’ from posting. He told the Gateway Pundit, another far-right site, that the apparent ban is evidence of a conspiracy against his website.”
Both stories were written by Kelly Weill, who did not immediately return a request for comment.
Journalist Tim Pool highlighted the new trend of media de-platforming activism.
“Don’t you see how the game is played yet? Media today is not seeking to inform, they are seeking to destroy for political ends,” he said on Twitter.
Don't you see how the game is played yet?
Media today is not seeking to inform, they are seeking to destroy for political ends. pic.twitter.com/suzciUe3uz
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 10, 2019
The de-platforming of Natural News comes after a week-long lobbying effort by Vox “reporter” Carlos Maza to have right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder kicked off the platform. YouTube eventually de-monitized Crowder’s account.
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