Facebook Reportedly Received Money From White Nationalist Candidate to Promote Neo-Nazi Content

Despite his racist views being well documented at the time, Facebook took money from white nationalist candidate Paul Nehlen during his failed ran for Paul Ryan’s vacated seat in Wisconsin, according to a new report from the investigative news site Sludge.

The content Nehlen paid the site to promote included a link to neo-Nazi website run by Christopher Cantwell, the man dubbed “the crying Nazi” for crying in a YouTube apology video he posted after Vice aired a documentary on his actions at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. More disturbing still, Facebook categorized Cantwell as a “hate figure” in August 2017 — amid the Unite the Right fallout — and banned him from their platform, but Nehlen was still able to pay the site to promote content that featured Cantwell’s work.

As for Nehlen, the twice failed House candidate was kicked off Twitter last year for making racist comments and spreading white nationalist conspiracies, most of which targeted Jews, but his account is still active on Facebook.

In a statement to Sludge reporter Alex Kotch, a Facebook flack confirmed that Nehlen’s previously promoted content featuring Cantwell violated the site’s rules, noting, “We removed the ad as soon as you flagged it for us.”

“We have an extensive process that we follow in determining which organizations are designated as hate orgs and figures,” they added.

[image via screengrab]

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