Tommy Robinson BANNED On Facebook, BBC Host Claims Responsibility
Tommy Robinson BANNED On Facebook, BBC Host Claims Responsibility. Following the release of Panodrama, a documentary by Tommy Robinson alleging collusion between BBC and an Activist organization, his accounts on Facebook and Instagram have been permanently banned.Robinson apparently found out only after major media outlets published stories about it. This led Robinson to assert that media and tech are colluding to remove him for exposing them. While it is strange that Facebook notified the press before Tommy himself we may have actual evidence of at least some type of colluding. A BBC presenter has claimed responsibility for Tommy's ban and asserts he is actively pursuing further action against him.
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Tommy Robinson has been permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram, and the company claims it's because he's repeatedly violated their rules against hate speech.
But many people find the timing rather suspect, because Robinson just published a documentary alleging collusion between the BBC and an activist organization called Hope Not Hate.
In his documentary, it shows journalist John Sweeney, who works for the BBC, telling one of Tommy Robinson's former employees what he wants her to say in an interview, as well as using several offensive remarks.
For this, the BBC had to apologize.
Now, one thing that makes this story interesting is that apparently, media got tipped off that Robinson would be banned before he was actually banned, and Tommy was able to post a video just before they actually banned him.
So many people think this is evidence that the media is actually colluding with social media to remove content that is critical of them or could expose them.
But today, let's take a look at what actually happened, and I want to take a critical approach to some of the claims made by Tommy Robinson in his documentary.
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From The Guardian, Tommy Robinson banned from Facebook and Instagram.
Far-right founder of English Defense League repeatedly breached hate speech rules.
Now, The Guardian says this is definitive, but I think it's important to point out there should be an allegedly in this statement, but I can't say I'm surprised it's The Guardian.
The company said Robinson, whose real name is Steven Yaxley-Lennon, broke rules that ban public calls for violence against people based on protected characteristics.
rules that ban supporting or appearing with organized hate groups,
and policies that prevent people from using the sites to bully others.
The decision to ban Robinson from the social media sites could threaten his
ability to reach large audiences.
The Guardian states the ban comes a month after Facebook issued a final
written warning against Robinson, warning him that if he continued to break the company's
hate speech policies, he would be removed from its platform permanently.
That warning had been issued for breaches that included a post calling on people to terrorize and behead those who follow the Quran, a post calling on people to make war on Muslims, and multiple videos showing people being bullied.
Following that warning, Robinson did break Facebook's policies again, it says, through organizing and participating in events with recognized hate figures or groups such as Proud Boys and Gavin McInnes, public praise or support for these hate figures and groups, public remarks that include hate speech targeted at a specific group in society, Public calls for violence against people based on issues such as race, ethnicity, or national origin.
Under the ban, Robinson's official Facebook page and Instagram profile will be deleted, as well as any future presence on the site preemptively barred.
It will also place Robinson in the same category as other banned personalities, such as McInnes, the Proud Boys founder, and the InfoWars founder, Alex Jones, meaning that others who allow him access to the site through their own pages or profiles could face disciplinary action themselves.
But I want to stress They say public praise or support for these figures could be a violation of Facebook policies.
That means if you praise the Proud Boys, McInnes, Alex Jones, or now Tommy Robinson, you too could face a ban or suspension or other penalty for violating Facebook policies.
The Guardian adds an interesting bit of information to the story.
In the time between Facebook announcing the deletions and them taking effect 24 minutes later, Robinson posted a new video to his Instagram account accusing the company of working together with the media to censor him.
If this isn't the evidence that you needed, headlines now from The Guardian.
The Guardian.
Before I've been told.
So they're all working together with media.
They have deleted me from Facebook, and apparently I'm being deleted from Instagram.
I can still make this video at the minute, but I'm being deleted.
He appealed to his supporters, follow him to his personal website, saying, we have to fight this censorship.
In a statement published by Facebook, they say, Tommy Robinson's Facebook page has repeatedly broken these standards, posting material that uses dehumanizing language and calls for violence targeted at Muslims.
He has also behaved in ways that violate our policies around organized hate.
As a result, In accordance with our policies, we have removed Tommy Robinson's official Facebook page and Instagram profile.
This is not a decision we take lightly, but individuals and organizations that attack others on the basis of who they are have no place on Facebook or Instagram.
Breitbart published a story in which they got a comment from Tommy Robinson.
They say, responding to the ban, English Defense League founder turned citizen journalist Tommy Robinson told Breitbart London, The reasons they've given are just complete lies.
They're saying I incited violence and that I openly called for violence against Muslims.
That's just a lie.
If that was the case, then they could show evidence of messages where I'd said that, but I never have.
This is continued censorship which we all knew was coming, but it's been done instantly because of my documentary, which exposed the establishment working with Hope Not Hate, working with the BBC in order to destroy my name to the nation.
When I exposed what they were doing, they've put down the pressure to completely delete me from the internet.
This has to show people the levels they're gonna go to silence any opposition to mass migration and the Islamization of this nation.
While naturally, there will be people on the left criticizing what Tommy is saying, that there's media collusion to get him banned, Tommy is actually correct.
This man, Mohammed Shafiq, tweeted, I can reveal I recently had a meeting with Facebook to
discuss Tommy Robinson pages and their impact in brainwashing his supporters to become
terrorists and use violence against Muslims.
A very good result and I am proud of my role.
Mohammed Shafiq says that he is a Muslim broadcaster on TV, radio,
columnist, chief executive of the Ramadan Foundation, and paper reviewer Saturdays at BBC5 Live,
regular contributor to RT.com.
Shafiq wrote a public statement for the Ramadan Foundation where he said, I welcome the decision by Facebook to ban the well-known fascist Tommy Robinson from their platforms of Facebook and Instagram.
He adds, I can confirm that the Ramadan Foundation has reached out to Google and YouTube representatives
here in London to push them to take similar action to ban Tommy Robinson and look forward
to meeting them in coming weeks.
While I think it's fair to point out that he may be a commentator for the BBC, it doesn't
mean he's working at an official capacity for the BBC, but it does show at least to
a certain extent there are individuals working within the BBC who are actively advocating
to tech companies to remove Tommy Robinson.
You don't have to like Tommy.
You don't have to agree with him.
I personally do not.
But I do think it's particularly worrisome that just after Tommy released a documentary alleging collusion between the BBC, someone from the BBC publicly announces they are advocating his removal on social media.
A couple days ago, Tommy Robinson protested at BBC headquarters and shows his documentary, Panodrama.
The documentary is still up on YouTube.
In it, you can see Tommy Robinson giving a recording device to a former employee so they could essentially sting the BBC journalists.
This man, John Sweeney, thought he was going to be meeting with Tommy Robinson for an interview, but in fact, Tommy then played various bits of evidence or accusations against the BBC, claiming they were working with an activist organization called Hope Not Hate.
And then ask John Sweeney to answer questions.
While I can't comment on every single thing in the documentary, there's a few things that I did want to bring up.
In the secretly recorded footage and on the audio, you can hear the BBC journalist using offensive and homophobic slurs, for which they had to apologize.
He also, at one point, tells Lucy Brown, the former employee of Tommy Robinson, what he wants her to say in an interview.
Now, people on the right are saying this is proof they were coordinating the interview, but it's a little more complicated than that.
John Sweeney's response was that this was following a long conversation and he was just essentially recapping what she had told him and what he wanted for the interview.
Regardless, as a journalist, you can't do that.
You cannot list off bullet points of what you want your subject to say and then tell them you will selectively edit it in certain ways so they don't look that bad.
It also sounds Like somebody was trying to coordinate a false sexual assault allegation against Tommy Robinson.
Again, I can't comment on the full video, but I did want to highlight this because the BBC has issued an apology.
BBC Panorama tweeted out this statement following the release of Tommy's documentary.
The BBC has released the following statement of Panorama's investigation into Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson.
BBC Panorama is investigating Tommy Robinson.
The BBC strongly rejects any suggestion that our journalism is faked or biased.
Any program we broadcast will adhere to the BBC's strict editorial guidelines.
Some of the footage which has been released was recorded without our knowledge during this investigation, and John Sweeney made some offensive and inappropriate remarks for which he apologizes.
BBC Panorama's investigation will continue.
But they didn't address the fact that, yes, at a certain point, you can see John Sweeney listing off what he wants Lucy Brown to say.
And again, I want to straighten this out.
I want to clarify this.
They will try to claim they had a long conversation with Lucy, she told them these things, and they said, this is what we want for the documentary.
Journalists, they do this sometimes.
However, in terms of ethics, what most journalists do is just ask questions over and over again until they get the response they want.
That still is a bit underhanded, but much more typical and more in line with ethics.
You cannot, at least as far as my professional career has gone and who I've worked with, you can't tell someone, okay, we talked, here are the three things we want you to say when we interview you.
No.
You can't do that.
This morning, someone else got banned, and this may or may not be related.
But Raheem Kassam tweeted, What a thing to wake up to.
My personal Facebook profile has been deleted, with no warning or explanation.
I can no longer administer my fan page with over 150,000 likes.
According to The Daily Caller, Kassam is an opinion writer for The Daily Caller and a former chief advisor to United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage.
They say Facebook's reason for disabling the page wasn't clear.
Kassam, a former Muslim and former editor for conservative media outlet Breitbart London, is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference later this week.
It's the third time Facebook has been accused of censoring conservatives over the last several weeks.
Last week, the Facebook-owned Instagram allegedly prevented users from liking posts published by Donald Trump Jr.
Earlier in the month, Facebook and Instagram were both accused of blocking posts from users who were critical of actor Jussie Smollett for staging his own assault.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Donald Trump Jr.
did comment on Twitter by saying, I'm sure this was a quote accident like I've been hearing
from the social media masters.
Funny that accidents only happen one way.
And in a rather unsurprising fashion, it turns out this was a quote mistake, end quote.
Rahim Qassam tweeted update.
Following this intervention from Donald Trump Jr.
and others, Facebook has now reinstated my account.
Thank you to Don Jr.
and all others who got so involved and ahead on this story.
I've no doubt you've frightened Facebook into acting Raheem.
According to CNN reporter Hadas Gold, Facebook says Raheem Kassam profile was removed in error and was restored as soon as we were able to investigate.
Donald Trump Jr.
made a good point.
It seems like these mistakes often go in one direction.
I am no fan of Tommy Robinson.
Last year, at an event that he was speaking at, two Muslim men showed up because one of them, Ali Dawa, was set to speak.
In a video published by Tommy, he alleged that one of these Muslim men punched a police officer.
I believe that to be categorically false, and called it fake news.
Following this, Tommy posted an insulting photo of me and mocked me on his Instagram before deleting it.
So, there's some personal issues and professional issues there.
But this is still suspect to me.
Look, again, I'm not a fan of the guy, but I do think it's very strange that someone from the BBC said they're actively advocating for his banning, and then he got banned just after he accused them of colluding with an activist organization.
What else can you determine from this?
They could have banned Tommy at any point.
Why just now?
Sure, maybe it's a coincidence, but I'm kinda leaning towards if someone from the BBC says they've advocated for this, and then he criticizes the BBC and makes an accusation against them, and then gets banned, Look, if it smells like a duck, if it walks like a duck.
But let me know what you think in the comments below, we'll keep the conversation going.
Do you think this is active collusion?
I think that might be a stretch, but there does seem to be something here.
Or do you think that Tommy is just a hateful person who broke the rules?
Comment below, we'll keep the conversation going.
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