FILE – In this Tuesday, April 18, 2017, file photo, conference workers speak in front of a demo booth at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference, in San Jose, Calif. Facebook announced Tuesday, June 27, 2017, that it now has more than 2 billion users. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
Yesterday, I posted about Facebook greenlighting a Democrat ad for North Dakota telling voters that if they had a hunting license and voted then that license would not be valid in other states.
The Susan B. Anthony List has been running ad in key senate races where you have a notorious pro-abort running and so they had targeted ads for Tennessee and Montana. Marsha Blackburn has had more than her share of bad luck with social media organizations. Twitter also banned one of her pro-life ads and earlier this week Google ads banned one of her ads showing a Democrat mob trying to disrupt one of her gatherings.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1058088927213641728
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1058088991336079360
SBA List protested and Facebook backed down and admitted there was nothing inappropriate with the ad. But, just as they were restoring the Tennessee ad, they banned the exact same ad from running in Montana. Here is the SBA List twitter account:
BREAKING: @Facebook just banned ANOTHER one of our ads – this time in Montana.
This is getting ridiculous, @SherylSandberg. What's the deal? Is #ProLife speech welcome on your platform or not?#MTSen @MattForMontana #IVoteProLife✅
Watch the ad Facebook banned: pic.twitter.com/skSGlrglIG
— Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) November 1, 2018
here's our statement after @Facebook just banned yet another of our ads – this time in Montana supporting @MattForMontana: pic.twitter.com/wQ1SsTqhrP
— Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) November 1, 2018
They also helpfully list all the other run-ins they’ve had with Facebook’s pro-abort nannies.
10/15 – Charlotte ad banned again
10/23 – Ad exposing @clairecmc in Missouri banned: https://t.co/mWkQe9pFms
10/23 – Micah ad banned again: https://t.co/kawGswLlKT
10/25 – Ad exposing Josh Welle in #PA17 banned
10/25 – We appeal & Micah ad allowed to run[2/4]
— Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) November 1, 2018
11/1 – Ad exposing @PhilBredesen for #TNSen banned: https://t.co/reLESOX84Z
11/1 – Ad exposing @jontester for #MTSen banned: https://t.co/vKko6lNbe3[4/4]
— Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) November 1, 2018
Since then, Facebook has again backed down. This, in my view, wins then the Miss Congeniality trophy in the Too-Little-Too-Late Contest.
Political speech has a special place in American society, unfortunately this fact seems lost of Facebook and Google and Twitter. There is no legitimate reason that the ads run by SBA List should be pulled. They may speak a hard truth about an abominable pseudo-medical procedure that is favored by the staff and management of those companies but that does no give them the prerogative to decide that message can’t be sent. As I’ve said time and again, the behemoth social media corporations that have a reach that a broadcaster could only have fevered fanatasies about are given immunity from many laws because they claim to be “platforms.” In reality, they are making editorial decisions on what is posted on their platform and that makes them a publisher. If they want to be able to forbid certain viewpoints, they need to play by the same rule as any other publisher and he held legally liable for what is posted.
In the next Congress, should the GOP retain control, breaking the ability of these monopolies to ban political speech their woke workforce doesn’t like has to be a top priority. If need be, we need to follow the EU’s lead and declare that customer usage data belongs to the customer and that it can’t be used without permission or compensation but my preferred option is to unleash DOJ’s Anti-Trust Division on them after they have been stripped of all their unique legal protections.
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