‘The revelation that Facebook is keeping a list of possible “hate agents” isn’t all that surprising but it is still deeply troubling. After the banning of Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Louis Farrakhan from Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram earlier this month, the obvious question becomes, who else is Facebook looking to get rid of?’
Two weeks after permanently banning several conservative commentators over perceived “hate speech,” Facebook temporarily suspended Candace Owens (shown), the leader of the Blexit movement, for a similar offense. The suspension, originally meant to last seven days lasted only one day as Facebook quickly backed down and returned Owens’ account to an active status after severe social media backlash.
Owens’ crime? A post from May 4, where she listed several poverty statistics and wrote, “Black America must wake up to the great liberal hoax. White supremacy is not a threat. Liberal supremacy is.” Owens was notified that her Facebook account was suspended for seven days because she had violated the website’s “community standards.”
Prior to her account being reinstated, Owens tweeted directly to President Trump to inform him of the situation. “Dear [President Trump], My [Facebook] has been suspended for seven days for posting that white supremacy is not a threat to black America, as much as father absence and liberal policies that incentivize it are,” Owens tweeted. “I am censored for posting the poverty rates in fatherless homes.”
“This post goes against our community standards,” Facebook said of Owens’ post.
After the social network restored Owens’s account, it said, “It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our Community Standards. We want to apologize and let you know that we’ve restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action.”
by James Murphy
