Facebook removed Steve Bannon-linked pages for ‘misinformation’ and ‘delegitimizing election results’

Facebook has removed seven pages linked to former Trump chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon for what the social network deemed "pushing misinformation about voter fraud and delegitimizing election results. "Bannon’s page also incurred penalties, including not being allowed to post content, but was not removed from Facebook, according to The Washington Post.

The seven pages, which used the “Stop the Steal” messaging, had a combined following of over 2.45 million people. The pages were flagged on Facebook by the progressive group Avaazz on Friday night.

“We’ve removed several clusters of activity for using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially boost how many people saw their content,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said. “That includes a Group that was originally named ‘Stop the Steal’ which later became ‘Gay Communists for Socialism’ and misled people about its purpose using deceptive tactics.”

The move comes just days after Bannon was permanently banned from Twitter after alleging that President Trump should quickly execute Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert. Facebook had also removed two videos from his page for inciting violence, which included beheading.