Facebook says it “mistakenly” removed several videos and censored the reach of conservative educational organization PragerU, short for Prager University.
On Friday, Prager tweeted evidence that they were being “heavily censored” by Facebook – writing “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.
BREAKING: We’re being heavily censored on @Facebook.
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.
SHARE to spread awareness about big tech censorship! pic.twitter.com/k83HqmlMRc
— PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018
For reference, here’s one video deemed too “hateful” for Facebook – which suggests that when society tries to force men to feminize in order to eliminate “toxic masculinity,” it only creates a more toxic environment vs. encouraging men to harness their inherent masculinity for the sake of good.
Ladies and gentlemen, the video deemed too “hateful” for @facebook.@conservmillen
👉https://t.co/rsogdgmdJ2 pic.twitter.com/kV6kfynqDm— PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018
Facebook responded 8 hours afte Prager University’s original tweet with an apology, writing in a tweet: “We mistakenly removed these videos and have restored them because they don’t break our standards. This will reverse any reduction in content distribution you’ve experienced. We’re very sorry and are continuing to look into what happened with your Page.”
We mistakenly removed these videos and have restored them because they don’t break our standards. This will reverse any reduction in content distribution you’ve experienced. We’re very sorry and are continuing to look into what happened with your Page.
— Facebook (@facebook) August 18, 2018
PragerU produces short educational videos on a wide varierty of topics from a conservative perspective. While not typically covering current events, Prager provides counterpoints to many liberal talking points – including oppression of women, climate change, gun ownership and trust in the media. In 2017, Google restricted of demonitized 37 PragerU videos, which the university challenged in a lawsuit that was later dismissed by a district court judge.
Considering the recent high-profile ban of controversial conservative Alex Jones in a seemingly coordinated attack by YouTube, Facebook, Apple and several other social media companies and online services. After resisting calls to ban Jones, Twitter finally handed the Infowars host a week-long suspension for “abusive behavior.”
In all seriousness have you ever made a similar mistake with such a high profile “liberal leaning” prestigious university similar to @prageru ?
That truly is the test.
Please provide an example of same and you will be exonerated— failure of which is an admission of vile bias.
— Manny_Ottawa (@manny_ottawa) August 18, 2018
Yeah right. You won’t silence us. And your Orwellian manipulation as the midterms approach is so obvious it’s pathetic! Stop ruining the platform you built!
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) August 18, 2018
President Trump weighed in on the matter on Saturday, tweeting “Social media is totally discriminating against Republican/conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others.”
Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
Trump called censorship “a very dangerous thing.”
…..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
Trump went on to question “who is making the choices” regarding censorship, “because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!”
….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
On Saturday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted to CNN’s Brian Stelter that Twitter employees have “more left-leaning” bias, though he claims the San Francisco, CA company operates in a neutral manner.
“We need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is…is more left-leaning,” said Dorsey.
“We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology,” @Jack told me. But he knows some people do not believe him. “I think we need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is left, is more left-leaning,” he says… pic.twitter.com/1i8jJunhfz
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 18, 2018
Dorsey’s CNN appearance was the latest stop in Twitter’s rehabilitation road-show after evidence emerged that they had been “shadow banning” conservative users through a variety of methods; including hiding tweets from followers and hiding conservative users from search results.
And while Silicon Valley social media companies and their defenders may argue that “it’s a private platform, if you don’t like it, start your own Twitter,” – journalist Tim Pool points out the flaw in that logic:
We have handed over the public square to private companies.
These companies can now decide who gets to participate in political debate.
This is where most people debate and share ideas and now we have no right to the public discussion.
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) August 6, 2018
Perhaps social media companies should, as President Trump says, “Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!”
via RSS https://ift.tt/2PmYw1J Tyler Durden