Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube. All these social media platforms are purveyors of information and have a duty to make available to its users all sorts of information as long as it is within reason.
Most of these platforms have guidelines such as bans on pornographic material, bans on material that includes hate speech and other sorts of information that could be deemed inflammatory.
But how about a simple disagreement?
Facebook recently banned popular blogger Elizabeth Johnston, also known as “The Activist Mommy,” over a post they deemed against their policies.
Mrs. Johnston is a Christian woman who regularly shares biblical views on contentious issues such as homosexuality, abortion and so on.
Her views are conservative and seem to fly in the face of Facebook’s alleged liberal bias.
“Apparently, I upset the ‘Thought Police’ over at Facebook with something I posted,” said the activist Mommy to CBN News
“When I clicked on Facebook to post something last Wednesday, I couldn’t post and was notified I had been banned for ‘hate speech.’ Facebook refused to tell me what I posted that was hateful, so how am I supposed to prevent an infraction in the future?”
Facebook later apologized for the move citing that it was a mistake.
“Remember how Facebook banned me from my platform for ‘hate speech’ this week but couldn’t tell me what I had done that was hateful? Guess I wasn’t so hateful after all,” Johnston posted. “They apologized.”
Facebook in a message to Mrs Johnston said: “One of our detection systems mistakenly flagged your content and unpublished it,
“We have restored the content, and I apologize for the inconvenience.”
Last year, the popular blogger was also hit by Facebook over her take on Homosexuality which she said was against the Bible’s principles and Facebook said that this did not “follow the Facebook Community Standards.”
Mrs, Johnston isn’t the only one to have been hit by Facebook’s overtly liberal bias as another conservative body, Prager University, a non-profit organization that creates videos with conservative political views, have also suffered at the hands of the Social Media giant.
They took to Twitter to complain about one of their videos that had been taken down by the mark Zuckerberg company.
“We’re being heavily censored on @Facebook.” they said in a post.
“Our last 9 posts are reaching 0 of our 3 million followers. At least two videos were deleted last night for “hate speech” including our recent video with @conservmillen.
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“SHARE to spread awareness about big tech censorship!”
Prager University had a video in which they said Men should be made Masculine again, taken down by Facebook, perhaps because the algorithm believes it promoted toxic Masculinity.
“This is a first for us,” says PragerU CMO Craig Strazzeri. “While we’ve experienced blatant discrimination from Google/YouTube, which is why we’ve filed legal action against them, this represents a whole new level of censorship by Facebook. At this point, Facebook has provided little clarity saying it will get back to us in another two to three business days, which in the world of social media might as well be an eternity.”
“The evidence all points that they are restricting conservative views on their platform,” Witt said in a separate interview with Fox News.
In another case of a conservative voice being shut down by the liberal social media platform, Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, was banned after he criticised a video that he described as a sexually perverse message to children on homosexuality.
“This clip is about celebrating sexual perversity, not ‘sexual diversity,'”
He was banned for 24 hours and was warned that similar behaviour in the future could cost him a longer ban
“The truth is, Facebook is owned and run by radical leftists who intentionally keep the community guidelines very subjective and vague, which gives them unlimited power to silence and marginalize anyone whose voice they want to shut down,” said Johnston. “The Left fears our voices because we are effectively persuading and dismantling their lies about abortion, homosexuality, Islam, radical feminism, and a host of other issues that are an all-out assault on our Christian values.”
Mrs Johnston had a final word to say, adamant that she would not be shut up; “I find it all quite humorous and embarrassing for the Silicon Valley CEOs,
“The more they silence us, the more people want to hear what we have to say. So, carry on, people of God. Be bolder and louder than ever. You have the God of heaven on your side!”