Far-right activist Tommy Robinson says he has been banned from Instagram, after his account vanished from the photo sharing social platform.
The former English Defence League leader, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been banned from Twitter since March this year, and says he fears his Facebook account may be next for the chop.
“They have now deleted my Instagram account,” he wrote in a message to his 944,000 Facebook followers. “Facebook will soon close us down."
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Robinson “has repeatedly used his social accounts to share Islamophobic messages”, says The Independent.
Although Instagram has not publicly commented on the circumstances around the removal of Robinson’s account, if it was indeed deliberately removed by the company, it would come amid a wider crackdown on extremists across social media platforms.
Earlier this week, Youtube and Apple’s podcast service both deleted their back catalogue of Infowars, a radio show hosted by prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Jones has used the show to promulgate a wide range of theories, including telling listeners that the US government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks and that anti-gun activists faked the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, in which 22 children were killed.
Among his more offbeat theories is that US water supplies are deliberately being spiked with chemicals that have “turned frogs gay”.
“Both Robinson and Jones have suggested that they are the victim of a conspiracy to hide conservative voices,” says The Independent.
Predictably, far-right outlets have described the apparent crackdown as a “purge”, but the free speech battle has also brought Robinson unexpected allies. Brendan O’Neill, editor of far-left journal Spiked, wrote that attempts to deny Robinson a platform had only served to amplify his messages.
“Cowardly” mainstream press and politicians have stifled open debate around sensitive topics such as Islam and mass immigration, says O’Neill, “allowing him to present himself as a seer in a time of silence”.
However, tech companies argue that they are simply acting in accordance with their policies on hate speech, which all users are required to abide by when they sign up for their service.
Explaining its decision to remove four pages linked to Jones, Facebook said they contained content in violation of the site’s Community Standards, “glorifying violence… and using dehumanising language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants”.
