Facebook took down a handful of pages tied to Steve Bannon because they were spreading misinformation about the election.
Overall, the social media platform took down seven pages that had accrued more than 2.4 million followers and pushed the “Stop the steal” motto, which promotes unverified claims of mass voter fraud that allegedly helped Democratic nominee Joe Biden, according to the Washington Post. The pages were flagged by the liberal group Avaaz on Friday.
“We’ve removed several clusters of activity for using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially boost how many people saw their content,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone. “That includes a Group that was originally named ‘Stop the Steal’ which later became ‘Gay Communists for Socialism’ and misled people about its purpose using deceptive tactics.”
Some of the pages taken down include those belonging to Brian Kolfage, Conservative Values, We Build the Wall Inc., Citizens of the American Republic, American Joe, and Trump at War. In August, Bannon pleaded not guilty to charges that he allegedly defrauded donors in a $25 million “We Build the Wall” scam along with three associates, including Kolfage. All four men were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which could amount to 20 years in prison.
Last week, the social media platform removed another “Stop the steal” Facebook group that had accumulated more than 300,000 members who were sharing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and election integrity.
This was not Bannon’s only run-in with social media platform rules recently.
Twitter suspended an account associated with Bannon last week after he said he’d like to see Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray beheaded during an episode of the podcast War Room: Pandemic.
“[Trump’s] second term kicks off with firing Wray, firing Fauci. Now, actually I want to go a step farther, but I realize that the president is a kindhearted man and a good man,” Bannon said. “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes, right? I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program, or you’re gone. Time to stop playing games.”
“The @WarRoomPandemic account has been permanently suspended for violating the Twitter Rules, specifically our policy on the glorification of violence,” a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner at the time.
A number of media outlets (including the Associated Press, CNN, the New York Times, and Fox News, among others) projected Democratic nominee Joe Biden to be the next president. President Trump has not conceded the race while his campaign has yet to come up with verifiable proof to support its claims of widespread fraud.
Bannon was the former head of Breitbart News Network and was the CEO of Trump’s presidential campaign before serving as a chief strategist in the White House. He left the role in August 2017.
