Members and leadership of right-wing organization "The Proud Boys" assembled Monday afternoon in front of the Lincoln Memorial to hold a press conference announcing a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The Proud Boys consider themselves a "Western Chauvinist" fraternity, but they are classified by the SPLC as an "SPLC Designated Hate Group."
"The SPLC is the glue holding together all the media's lies about us," said Enrique Tarrio. The group argued that they are wrongly identified and are suing for slander.
After a violent incident in New York City in 2018, several Proud Boys-affiliated pages were removed from social media.
The group broadly sees deplatforming from social media and payment processors as a consequence of the hate group designation.
This action comes separately from Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes's lawsuit against the SPLC for slander. McInnes has since disavowed the Proud Boys, saying he was done with the group “forever.”
Asked by The Daily Beast's Will Sommer (the only media other than News2share in attendance) the group said it couldn't announce their attorneys yet but will have specifics out to the media about the lawsuit in the coming days.
The link below is the SPLC's "Extremist file" on the group, which is often cited by the media and is the crux of the lawsuit.
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/proud-boysFilmed by Ford Fischer
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