Facebook’s algorithms and tools reportedly unfairly limited conservative news sites and personalities. Facebook employees also reportedly exerted continual pressure on their company to censor more. But Congressmen have had enough and spoke out against Facebook’s unfair bias.
The latest of “The Facebook Files” from The Wall Street Journal described how various Facebook actions reportedly censor conservative news sites and individuals. Breitbart’s traffic would have grown 20 percent, and The Epoch Times would have grown by 11 percent without Facebook tools, per a 2019 study, The Journal wrote. Facebook has also been consistently pressured to censor more by its employees, according to The Journal.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) all slammed Facebook for its biased censorship. Steube emphasized the necessity of taking away Facebook’s “immunity from lawsuits.”
Steube exclusively told MRC Free Speech America, “It is no surprise that Facebook continues to suppress and censure conservatives. The only way to change their behavior is to take away their immunity from lawsuits. That is why I introduced the CASE-IT Act to reform Section 230 and hold Big Tech accountable for partisan censorship to promote your rights under the First Amendment.”
Steube is not the only congressman criticizing Facebook’s censorship. McMorris Rodgers issued a public statement on The Journal’s report. “The Left and their allies in the mainstream media want to use this moment and what we’ve learned from Facebook’s internal documents to push for more censorship of conservatives under the guise of misinformation,” McMorris Rodgers said. “This is wrong and un-American.” She added, “The answer should be more speech, not less.”
Republican House leader McCarthy condemned Facebook too. McCarthy reportedly told Breitbart News that Big Tech only gives users “half the story” and thus suppresses outlets that provide a fuller picture. McCarthy said that Facebook cannot hide behind its algorithms because “humans write the algorithms,” according to Breitbart News. “[E]mployees at these companies are not just hysterically anti-conservative — they are against any idea that doesn’t fit their narrative. That’s why accurate headlines, like ‘Massive Looting, Buildings in Flames, Bonfires!’ from outlets like Breitbart News, feel threatening to them and are then subject to suppression.”
Facebook has a history of biased censorship. MRC Free Speech America reported in October 2020 that Twitter and Facebook had censored former President Donald Trump and his re-election accounts at least 65 times since May 2018, while then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden’s accounts went totally uncensored. Facebook has reportedly been using a debunked Associated Press fact-check to censor posts critiquing critical race theory. One America News’s Justine Murray recently said that Facebook censors conservatives such as herself while overlooking sexual exploiters.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and contact Facebook headquarters at 1-650-308-7300 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
