Social media censorship of pro-life content
On September 19 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted behind closed doors to Senator Josh Hawley that there "clearly was bias" in their censorship of Live Action. Zuckerberg added that bias is “an issue we’ve struggled with for a long time.”
The social media giants Facebook/Instagram, Twitter and YouTube/Google all clearly lean Left. Their political donations are overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates. In the 2018 midterms, tech giant employees donated $2.4 million to House and Senate candidates — according to Federal Election Commission filings, and less than eight percent of it went to Republicans. Facebook has a near monopoly on social media as they also own and operate Instagram which leaves Twitter as their only major competitor.
These big tech giants state that they do not discriminate based on political views and claim to remain politically neutral but there are hundreds of instances where conservatives have been unfairly banned or suppressed based on their political beliefs.
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Live Action is a pro-life nonprofit and they have been very heavily targeted by the tech giants. Live Action is incredibly effective in their use of social media. They fight to save the lives of children in the womb and their posts are seen by millions. Between Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Live Action and founder Lila Rose, have a combined 3.7 million followers. They utilize undercover investigations; in the abortion industry, they have documented sexual abuse cover-up, racism, medical misinformation, sex-selective abortion, infanticide, and the willingness to assist sex traffickers. They have additionally documented false statements made by Planned Parenthood executives. Their work is critical to understanding the abortion industry and the pro-life/pro-choice debate.
Earlier this year, Live Action was permanently banned by Pinterest. They have also been banned from advertising on Twitter, while Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice organizations enjoy unrestricted advertising.
In late August, Facebook rated a video posted by Live Action and Lila Rose as “false news” using third party fact checkers and they sent a notification of this to all of their followers. The third party fact-checkers both directly profit from abortion — one of them is an abortionist and the other is an abortionist and an abortion trainer. Due to this Facebook violation, Live Action and Lila Rose’s Facebook page reach will be reduced for the "repeated sharing of false news.” In the video Live Action states that “abortion is never medically necessary” and this is the claim that Facebook issued the violation over. One thousand medical experts signed the Dublin Declaration declaring "the purposeful destruction of the unborn child — is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.” Live Action states that 2,500 OBGYNS at the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists also agree that abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a woman. Live Action further states that it may be medically necessary to deliver a child early, but this is not an abortion.
On September 11 GOP Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Mike Braun and Kevin Cramer sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemning the censorship of Live Action and demanding an immediate correction. Following this letter, Live Action stated that Facebook sent another push notification to all of their followers on Wednesday claiming that they are spreading "false news.” Was this an already scheduled automated Facebook follow-up notification or might it have been an intentional retaliation from Facebook to the letter from the Senators?
After Mark Zuckerberg admitted on September 19 there was indeed bias in their decision, Live Action founder Lila Rose stated that the admission was not enough. “If Facebook wants to make this right, they need to publicly apologize for this wrongdoing.” Lila continued, “Facebook also needs to remove the inaccurate Fact Check, resend a notification to our followers who were notified by Facebook fact checkers that our posts were "false," and fix their process so it never happens again to us or anyone else.”
Does anyone really believe that Facebook/Instagram, Twitter and YouTube/Google are neutral platform providers rather than publishers? They are not neutral and they are clearly heavily biased publishers and this needs to change.
And why are the social media giants trying so hard to suppress pro-life content? Abortion is the intentional killing of a child in the womb and everyone should be against that. Thousands of OBGYNS and millions of compassionate pro-life individuals recognize the fact that the mother and the baby are two separate patients and every attempt should always be made to preserve both of their lives.
Ryan Moore is a writer, songwriter and social media strategist. You can link to Ryan’s social media accounts at RyanMoore.com.
