French anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne banned from TikTok

PARIS — The controversial French comedian Dieudonne has been banned from TikTok, the video sharing app says.

The convicted anti-Semite — who has also been found guilty of condoning terrorism — had already been removed from YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

“Dieudonne’s account has been removed from the platform,” a spokesman for TikTok tells AFP without giving a reason for the decision.

Facebook — which also owns Instagram — pulled his account last week because he “had mocked victims of the Holocaust” and used “dehumanizing terms about Jews.”

Dieudonne, 54, has a loyal following among some in France’s poor immigrant suburbs.

The stand-up, whose full name is Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, was sentenced to two years in jail for tax fraud and money laundering last year.

He often rails against the “Zionist lobby” which he claims controls the world, and says his right to free speech has been infringed.

He has been repeatedly convicted of hate speech, most recently in November when he was fined 9,000 euros ($10,600) for anti-Semitic insults.

The French government has attempted at various times to shut his shows, particularly after he popularized a hand gesture known as the “quenelle,” which was criticized for resembling a Nazi salute.

France’s anti-discrimination czar Frederic Potier welcomes TikTok’s decision, and takes to Twitter to urge that social network to follow suit, asking, “What are you waiting for?”

— AFP