On Wednesday, Ezra Levant, founder of The Rebel website that features conservative hosts and contributors like Kurt Schlichter, Katie Hopkins, John Cardillo, Sebastian Gorka and more, found that Facebook had presented him with not much of a choice: he could unpublish the Facebook page and scour it for community standards violations or remain suspended.
BREAKING: Former Liberal Party staffer Kevin Chan, now Facebook's head of politics in Canada, keeps his promise to Justin Trudeau, and suspends The Rebel's Facebook page. No specific allegation; we just can't post anything, and they advise us to just delete the page. pic.twitter.com/AFFqTfKhUV
— Ezra Levant ? (@ezralevant) May 23, 2018
It's unsurprising. Justin Trudeau personally threatened Facebook that if they didn't censor political commentary he didn't like in advance of next year's election, he'd regulate them. They were eager to comply: https://t.co/RkXjVkea0I
— Ezra Levant ? (@ezralevant) May 23, 2018
The Star reported in February that, “as Canadian political parties prepare for the 2019 federal election … Trudeau suggested Ottawa could intervene if Facebook doesn’t adequately address the issues” of “fake news” that some people still blame for swinging the 2016 election to Trump.
Here's Facebook's notice. We have 10,000 posts; they won't tell us which one is "problematic". Their advice is to shut down the whole page. No info about who complained; no way to appeal; nothing. Just sociopath Mark Zuckerberg censoring the website Justin Trudeau hates most. pic.twitter.com/3UhgtKnPbY
— Ezra Levant ? (@ezralevant) May 23, 2018
No problem; just re-read all 10,000 posts while keeping Facebook’s community guidelines in line, remove the bad one, and then republish.
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As it turns out, the suspension was temporary:
THANK YOU to the hundreds of people who have shared the news of this shocking attack on us – it appears Facebook has backed down, and is allowing us to post without deleting our whole account. You helped us win today; but I am certain Zuckerberg's censors will be back again. pic.twitter.com/INQaV0jV3y
— Ezra Levant ? (@ezralevant) May 23, 2018
Whatever you think of The Rebel’s content, it really is scary to think how social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are going to “fix” all of the so-called problems of “fake news” and “hate speech” that allegedly left Hillary selling copies of “What Happened” in an aisle at Costco.
.@facebook is back at it. Back to their anti-Conservative ways. They’re now pressuring @TheRebelTV to shut down our entire page. https://t.co/H4Yl6P7Yaq
— Amanda Head (@TheHwCon) May 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/KStreckf/status/999358889564037120
Censorship of conservatives intensifies. Legislation? https://t.co/tfp6EWNugp
— Claudio Michelutti (@cmichelutti) May 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/B302154969/status/999363165631733762
Quoting @sorkinese:
"You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours."
I find this troubling https://t.co/AUex1uh1bE
— Mark Goldberg (@Mark_Goldberg) May 23, 2018
I'm not a big fan of this website but I'm even less of a fan of censorship and unfairness. https://t.co/8PnGR9bFWe
— Megan Lynn Browning (@MegLynnBro) May 23, 2018
It's not that coward Zuckerberg is a sociopath, it's that he developed a platform with the power to silence political opponents with impunity. Eventually all non-Communist voices will be gone from social media & we'll need our own platforms instead. We'll still win elections. https://t.co/Mlfy2NK83E
— Hurricane Watcher (@GodlessNZ) May 23, 2018
Gab saw an opportunity and jumped in:
https://twitter.com/getongab/status/999350382923927552
Related:
Mark Zuckerberg predicts AI tools that will catch 'hate speech' before it's posted https://t.co/WXcpnZF1vU
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 10, 2018
'Brought the HAMMER'! WATCH: Ted Cruz confronts Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook's 'censorship' of conservatives https://t.co/oQznLtWKu7
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 10, 2018
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