Twitter Suspends Proud Boys, Including Pacific Northwest Chapter, In Purge of “Violent Extremist Groups”

The Proud Boy purge comes two days before a massive far-right protest planned in Washington, D.C.

The Aug. 4 showing was one of the largest gatherings of Proud Boys in Portland. The men’s fraternity, which wears gold-trimmed polo shirts, has been labeled a hate group by some watchdogs. (Liz Allan)
By Katie Shepherd

Twitter suspended dozens of accounts associated with the far-right man's fraternity known as the Proud Boys, including the Pacific Northwest chapter of the controversial group.

Led by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes (who has not been associated with the publication for some time), the Proud Boys describe themselves as "Western chauvinists" and many have marched with white supremacists and other violent groups. McInnes's Twitter account was also suspended Friday afternoon.

"We can confirm that these accounts have been suspended from Twitter and Periscope for violating our policy prohibiting violent extremist groups," a spokesman for the social-media site told BuzzFeed News.

The mass ejection comes two days before a large far-right demonstration planned to take place in Washington, D.C. to mark the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Proud Boys have showed up in force in Portland twice this summer. First, they swarmed downtown on June 30, beating antifascist protesters with flag poles when a Patriot Prayer march turned into a riot. And last weekend, hundreds of Proud Boy supporters filled Tom McCall Waterfront park to again stand with the Vancouver-based right-wing protest group.

Twitter has resisted barring accounts associated with the racist and violent fringes of the alt-right in the recent past.

When Facebook, YouTube, and Apple all deleted Alex Jones' Infowars content—which played an outsized role in drawing conspiracy theorists to Portland last weekend—Twitter declined to oust the alt-right conspiracy promoter. Instead, Jones and Infowars deleted a few select videos and tweets to avoid being suspended by Twitter after journalists highlighted the ways in which Jones and his colleagues had violated the site's policies.

But Friday afternoon's Proud Boy purge is one of the most dramatic examples of a social media site ousting a large group of extremists in one go.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.