On February 26, 2019, Facebook removed Tommy Robinson’s official Facebook and Instagram profiles for allegedly violating their community standards. The company’s public statement alleges that Robinson consistently used dehumanizing language and incited violence against Muslims. Yet Facebook’s press release includes not even one screen shot to justify Robinson’s removal.

British news outlet Kipper Central wrote a piece on September 28, 2018 about Robinson’s meteoric rise on Facebook since his creation of an account five years earlier. According to the article’s author Reece Coombes, just before Tommy reached one million followers last year, he posted this message:

“Soon to reach one million followers. That is double as many as our Prime minister Theresa ‘the appeaser’ May.

The elites, establishment and the mainstream media are just so detached from what normal people feel. They continue to label all of us as extreme, fringe or far right but the fact that I have twice as many supporters as that so called ‘mainstream’ politician who is busy making a mess of this country, should give them a wake-up call.”

South African Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema is allowed to make statements on Facebook that truly incite violence, statements such as the one made on March 24, 2018 that call for the taking of other people’s land without payment. Yet he is never deplatformed.

Facebook’s community standards also go further to warn the followers of Tommy Robinson not to show their support on the platform or they too could have their accounts removed. The statement reads:

“So when ideas and opinions cross the line and amount to hate speech they may create an environment of intimidation and exclusion for certain groups in society -- in some cases with potentially dangerous offline implications -- we take action. Our public Community Standards state this sort of speech is not acceptable on Facebook -- and when we become aware of it, we remove it as quickly as we can. Our rules also make clear that individuals and organizations that are engaged in “organized hate” are not allowed on the platform, and that praise or support for these figures and groups is also banned.”

So now not only has Facebook banned Tommy Robinson, but the website has also implied that those who praise and support Robinson are also banned, all without a shred of evidence. Not one screenshot, not one quote even, and all of the documentation that was a part of Robinson’s five years of posting, all of the evidence that proves that the Luton native does not espouse violence against Muslims or use dehumanizing language to describe Muslims, has also been erased. It is Facebook’s word against his, and his followers are also implicated in the slander by association.

My challenge to anyone who believes that there is a truth to be found is this:  watch Robinson’s newly released documentary #Panodrama, watch this 2016 interview between Gad Saad and Robinson, read his book Enemy of the State, and if any of you can find any evidence of Tommy Robinson inciting violence, calling for beheadings, the taking of Muslim lands, or the rape of Muslim women,  for example, please comment in the comments section below. Please include a link to the statement and I the author of this article/blog will renounce my support for Robinson completely. I don’t believe in inciting violence against other ethnic groups or the followers of other religions, and neither should you.