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Twitter suspends Proud Boys and Gavin McInnes before Unite the Right

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Protesters at a rally in Portland organized by the Proud Boys.
Protesters at a rally in Portland organized by the Proud Boys.

Image: Kainoa Little/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

2017%2f10%2f18%2fe1%2fkeithwagstaff3.786faBy Keith Wagstaff2018-08-11 00:36:31 UTC

Well, apparently Twitter does have a line when it comes to unhinged hate speech.

The company suspended accounts associated with the Proud Boys ahead of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend. The move was originally reported by BuzzFeed News. 

Started by VICE co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are very thinly veiled white nationalists in Fred Perry polo shirts. Former member Jason Kessler organized the first Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, at which counter-protester Heather Heyer was murdered. He was “expelled” from the group only after the ensuing controversy. 

The group’s main account, @ProudBoysUSA, and McInnes’ personal account were both suspended by Twitter for violating its “policy prohibiting violent extremist groups,” the company confirmed.  BuzzFeed reports that “several regional accounts” associated with the Proud Boys were also suspended. 

Twitter has faced intense scrutiny over its decision not to ban Alex Jones, the shirtless red face of InfoWars. The site pushed the theory that the Sandy Hook shooting, in which 20 first-graders were murdered, was a hoax. 

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