Trump defends far-right personalities, attacks Facebook

US President Donald Trump has once again come out in support of right-wing personalities deemed "dangerous" by Facebook who have been banned on social media platforms, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and long-time Trump adviser Roger Stone.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump not only defended members of the far-right but also retweeted Islamophobic content

"I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America -- and we have what's known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!

"The wonderful Diamond and Silk have been treated so horribly by Facebook. They work so hard and what has been done to them is very sad - and we're looking into. It's getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!," he tweeted.

Diamond and Silk are two online personalities and outspoken supporters of the President.

Trump also retweeted a video from Deep State Exposed, an alt-right account that contains Islamophobic tweets and conspiracy theories, including QAnon -- a far-right conspiracy theory detailing a supposed secret plot by an alleged "deep state" against the President and his supporters.

Facebook and its photo-messaging service Instagram on May 2 banned several right-wing extremists it deemed "dangerous".

Facebook and Instagram also banned the "Nation of Islam" leader Louis Farrakhan who has repeatedly made anti-Semitic statements.

Others who have been removed from Facebook and Twitter include Infowars, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and Paul Nehlen "under the policies against dangerous individuals and organisations".

Jones and Infowars -- a far-right American conspiracy theory and fake news website -- have already been removed from Twitter.

In 2017, Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim propaganda videos originally posted by Jayda Fransen, a leader of a far-right British political party called Britain First.

More recently, the US President posted an edited video on Twitter that tried to link Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar to the 9/11 attacks, the media reported.

--IANS

na/ksk