Facebook Censorship

Todd Starnes blocked by FB

Mainstream Media Finally Talks About Facebook Censorship

Who here was surprised to learn that Facebook routinely censors conservatives? It's an open secret - if you post a politically incorrect opinion, there is a good chance you will get banned. It just takes someone reporting you. Todd Starnes of Fox News has a personal example (see the screen capture on the right).

It's a great example because you have to wonder exactly what about it triggers the censorship - is it Chik-fil-A, Paula Deen, 20 ounce sweet drinks, Cracker Barrel, Jesus Saves, or Gideon Bibles?

Conservatives on FB are pretty used to being ignored when they complain about this, so what surprised me is when the Gizmodo exposé (on how Facebook suppresses conservative news sources) caught the media's attention. You may not remember, given everything else happening in the world, but only a month before that the same Gizmodo editor, Michael Nunez, leaked the story that Facebook employees had used an internal poll to ask CEO Mark Zuckerberg "What responsibility does Facebook have to prevent a President Trump in 2017?" (Great article, by the way, as it brings up previous FB shenanigans.)


Facebook has responded, unsurprisingly, by being shocked, shocked that any censorship or bias could be going on and vows to self-investigate. According to CEO Zuckerberg:

We take this report very seriously and are conducting a full investigation to ensure our teams upheld the integrity of this product.
We have found no evidence that this report is true. If we find anything against our principles, you have my commitment that we will take additional steps to address it.

He is also now on a "charm offensive," inviting conservative media figures to meetings to discuss their FB concerns with him. Personally, I expect these guys to be fully charmed in no time - I have no expectation that any of these so-caled conservative media leaders will be resistant to Zuckerberg's immense wealth and celebrity.

It's not like Zuckerberg does not have the right to run his company with whatever bias he wants. I believe he does. Its the hypocritical, lying mask of fairness over the extreme leftism that I object to. The simple, conservative answer for users is to walk away from Facebook (and maybe use alternatives like MeWe). But are any wars won by abandoning the battlefield? I know from observation that this is not what the Left would do in our shoes. In fact, how often have they leveraged being the fringe minority to taking over the whole organization? They've done this to our schools, our newspapers, our government bureaucracy. If Facebook were a right-leaning company that suppressed leftist thought, the leftists would be infiltrating it and gradually taking over. So keep the heat on Facebook and make them live up to their mask of fairness.