Facebook removed seven pages, with over 2.45 million followers, tied to Steve Bannon for pushing misinformation about voter fraud and election results
The pages, which promoted the ‘Stop the Steal’ effort and other misleading messages related to the election, were removed over the weekend …
Washington PostElizabeth Dwoskin
Context & Ripple Effects
Days after Facebook shut down the Trump-linked "Stop the Steal" Group that drew 360,000+ members within a day of launching, the platform has now moved up the chain and removed seven pages tied to Steve Bannon himself, totaling over 2.45 million followers. The move extends an election-period enforcement arc that also included the removal of 200+ accounts tied to prior US interference efforts in September.
The scale matters: this is not the 2018 sweep of 800+ US-based accounts spamming political messages for profit, but a takedown aimed at named political operatives with large organic audiences — a categorically harder call for a platform already accused of both under- and over-enforcement.
First-order effects
Bannon and allied operators immediately lose their largest consolidated distribution channels on Facebook — 2.45M followers of reach that had been amplifying 'Stop the Steal' messaging about voter fraud and election results.
Second-order effects
Enforcement against one node pushes the same audiences toward reconstituted pages, groups, and off-platform channels, forcing Facebook into a whack-a-mole posture where each takedown raises the stakes for the next decision on high-profile political figures.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds — from the 2018 profit-driven account sweeps through election misinformation and, weeks later, the removal of at least nine Pages spreading coordinated health misinformation after think-tank flagging — platform moderation settles into a model driven by external researchers' findings and episodic mass removals rather than consistent rules applied to powerful actors.
The trend: Platform enforcement is shifting from policing anonymous spam networks to removing named political operatives' large follower bases during crisis periods, with external flaggers increasingly setting the trigger.
If you thought disinformation on Facebook was a problem during our election, just wait until you see how it is shredding the fabric of our democracy in the days after. Look at what has happened in just the past week.
@kevinroose
Kevin Roose on x
Facebook is absolutely teeming with right-wing misinformation right now. These are all among the 10 most-engaged URLs on the platform over the last 24 hours (per @NewsWhip data) https://twitter.com/...
@karaswisher
Kara Swisher on x
Hey @finkd and @sherylsandberg and rest of the Facebook executive team: You are presiding over a toxic and dangerous stew of misinformation and purposeful propaganda and it is clear abrogation of the job you are charged with. For those of us who know you personally, for shame. ht…
@fadiquran
Fadi Quran on x
The disinformation was sophisticated and being shared at scale through link, videos, and other memes. This cluster has been on our radars since August. Facebook should've acted earlier, but at this dangerous moment for democracy, this step is still pivotal. (thread)
@sonaliranade
@sonaliranade on x
He provided the model for BJP IT Cell. https://twitter.com/...
@fboversight
@fboversight on x
Credit here goes to @Avaaz for pressuring @Facebook to finally act, not to the company. But still, Bannon has not been banned from the platform. He funds and builds pages to spread election disinformation and live streams violent threats. What's the bar for banning Bannon? https:…
@jamesfourm
Jay McKenzie on x
Roger Stone and Steve Bannon had such a massive falling out that's *definitely* real which is why Bannon's Facebook pages got banned for spreading election disinfo centered on “Stop the Steal” ... a term coined by Stone. Or, you know, maybe they've been playing you all along. htt…
@slpng_giants
@slpng_giants on x
Between this Stop the Steal network and Bannon calling for the execution of federal officials last week, @facebook needs to ban Bannon for good. It's absolutely ridiculous that they continue to let him operate like this on their platform. https://twitter.com/...
@anthonysmdoyle
Anthony Doyle on x
So, like... they knew the pages were there all along, knew they were doing harm all along, and had the ability to remove them quickly all along. Don't praise them for this. They clearly waited this long to do anything by choice. https://twitter.com/...
@ibjiyongi
@ibjiyongi on x
All it took was hundreds of thousands of lives and a threat to behead the head of the FBI https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...