Facebook Inc. said one of the U.K.’s leading far-right groups, Britain First, has crossed the line, and the social network has taken down the official Facebook page.

In a blog post Wednesday, the social media giant said expressing political opinions was fine, but inciting hatred wasn’t. Facebook also took down the official pages of the group’s leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen.

“There are times … when legitimate political speech crosses the line and becomes hate speech designed to stir up hatred against groups in our society,” said Facebook. The company said the decision was not taken lightly, but the group had continually “posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups, which disqualifies the Pages from our service.”

Britain First has attracted a huge following in the U.K., with its mandate encapsulated under the banner “Islamophobic and proud.” It had no formal political party, but not for lack of trying. Social media was where the group amassed many fans and its page had more than 2 million “likes” on Facebook.

The group gained more recognition in the U.S. after President Donald Trump retweeted some of the its videos late last year. That led to widespread controversy, with a spokesperson from the Muslim Council of Britain saying it was “the clearest endorsement yet from the U.S. president of the far-right and their vile anti-Muslim propaganda.”

Only recently Golding and Fransen were found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment and sentenced to 18 weeks and 36 weeks, respectively. “These defendants were not merely exercising their right to free speech but were instead aiming religiously aggravated abuse at innocent members of the public,” the court heard.

This banning of Britain First might be a bold move for Facebook, but according to a February report in Wired, scores of groups in the U.K. disseminate similar Islamophobic sentiments on Facebook. Some of these groups also call themselves Britain First but have much smaller followings.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the decision. “Britain First is a vile and hate-fueled group whose sole purpose is to sow division,” Khan wrote in a tweet. “Their sick intentions to incite hatred within our society via social media are reprehensible.”

Many of the comments that followed this message, however, were from people concerned about “free speech.”

Image: Elizabeth Ellis via Flickr