American butt rock stalwarts turned right-wing foghorns, Trapt, are attempting to take down the big tech oligarchs — the band have threatened to sue Facebook after the social media platform deleted their account for “violating community standards”.
These past few years has seen frontman Chris Taylor Brown use his platform to advocate support for Donald Trump. The band were kicked off Facebook after sharing a post that aligned with the far-right group Proud Boys.
The boomer-core illustration featured a silhouette of a Proud Boy — complete with yellow Fred Perry polo — holding Lady Liberty, captioned “Don’t Worry Girl, We Got You.”
The fringe far-right group was founded in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The movement identifies as a “pro-Western Fraternal organisation” that values “pro-second-amendment”, “anti-race guilt”, and, bizarrely, the “venerating the housewife.”
In 2018 the FBI classified the organisation as an “extremist group.”
Trapt claim that the public endorsement of the Proud Boys caused their Facebook page to be removed, Brown also claims his personal Instagram account has been deleted.
“For posting this pic … Facebook has completely deleted the TRAPT FB account,” Brown wrote on Trapt’s Twitter account. “They said don’t use the phrase ‘Proud Boys.’ I specifically told FB trapt fans that I could not say the name. I will be suing Facebook.”
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In another tweet, Brown disputed the claims that the far-right group are extremists, writing: “Proud Boys are a defensive group. Those boys were out there to protect those who want to protest without being attacked.”
A number of people took to Twitter to share that they had reported the band for “hate speech,” on Facebook. Posting screenshots from Facebook that said, “Thanks for taking the time to report something you feel may go against the Facebook Community Standards. We removed Trapt’s profile from Facebook.”
