Censorship: Facebook ‘Mistake’ Caused 99.999% Drop in PragerU Traffic
Peter D'Abrosca
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Facebook has apologized to a conservative non-profit after a “mistake” caused the group’s page to lose 99.999 percent of its engagements, according to Breitbart.
“The videos in question were mistakenly removed,” Facebook said in a statement. “While we continue to research what caused this error, we have restored the content because it does not break our Community Standards and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Several PragerU videos were flagged as “hate speech” and removed, including a video on masculinity. PragerU is known for posting short educational videos that teach the fundamentals of conservatism, among other right-leaning topics.
While Facebook was investigating what caused the “mistake,” PragerU Chief Marketing Officer blasted the tech giant.
“This is very troubling behavior from the world’s largest social network,” Stazzerri said. “Not only are they obviously ratcheting up their algorithms to target mainstream, conservative content and labeling it as hate speech, but they are now completely blocking our posts from public view. This is shocking and it should deeply concern every single American.”
PragerU has filed a lawsuit against Google, which owns YouTube, for similar de-platforming.
The organization posted a tweet on Friday showing literally zero engagements, though the page has 3 million followers.
“Our last 9 posts are reaching 0 of our 3 million followers. At least two videos were deleted last night for “hate speech,” the post said. “SHARE to spread awareness about big tech censorship!”
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
Facebook replied saying the censorship was a mistake.
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 proceeded to blast Facebook for the obvious lie.
“Removing two videos, marking them as “hate speech” and then subsequently censoring over 15 of our following posts to reach 0 of our 3 million followers is not a mistake. It’s deliberate censorship of conservative ideas,” the group said.
Removing two videos, marking them as “hate speech” and then subsequently censoring over 15 of our following posts to reach 0 of our 3 million followers is not a mistake. It’s deliberate censorship of conservative ideas. https://t.co/DZZ5MUmjg4
— PragerU (@prageru) August 18, 2018
Silicon Valley has come under fire for the past two weeks for banning prominent conservatives from using their platforms.
Conservative radio show host Alex Jones was banned from Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify in one day. Later, British free speech activist Tommy Robinson was banned from Instagram and co-founder of VICE Media Gavin McInnes was banned from Twitter.
Big League Politics contributor Laura Loomer was also temporarily suspended from Facebook.
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