The Will County News

 

These “Community Standards” Are Just An Excuse To Shut Down Conservatives

From Mommy Underground March 2018

The hypocrisy of the left is no secret; however, the irony lies in the fact that anyone who does not agree with their liberal ideology is branded a hypocrite.

The mainstream media and social media sites all seem to align themselves with this ideology and condemn any and all conservative or traditional viewpoints.  Such is the case with social media giant, Facebook, in what seems to be an underhanded attack on Christian groups and ideals.

Facebook has been on a mission to keep content in line with only one perspective – their “community standards” only protect liberal members of the community.

Facebook’s mission statement “is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.”

Apparently, this sharing and expression means that one may only express opinions that do not offend the left.  In its attempts to shut down conservative Christian views, the company is defeating the very core of its mission statement of sharing and expression for all.

One such case involved Christian writer, Julio Severo, whose post was removed simply for quoting a Bible verse from Leviticus 18:22 in Portuguese.  The English translation, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination,” contained in the post violated Facebook’s “community standards” policy for being “discriminatory” against the LGBT community.

According to Activist Mommy, Facebook sent a message to Severo that read:

“We Removed Something You Posted. It looks like something you posted doesn’t follow our Community Standards. We remove posts that attack people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender or disability.

“Willing or not willing, Facebook treated Leviticus 18:22 directly as a ‘attack’ on ‘people based on their … sexual orientation, gender.’ That is, Facebook treated the Bible as a criminal book!” Severo said.

In the past, Facebook has allowed posts including vulgarity and offensive messages against Christians, without consequences of removal or suspension of accounts.  Now, simply posting a Bible passage can land you in “Facebook jail,” whereby your account can be suspended for days or weeks at a time or closed altogether.

Activist Mommy reported:

What’s crazy is just how slanted and one-sided these “community standards” really are. This isn’t about keeping things on Facebook civil, it’s about curating content so that users are only presented with one perspective…And apparently, words directly from the Bible just don’t fit these standards.

Let that sink in. This is the most widely read book of all time, a book that is regarded as a sacred text by more people than any other by far and is the foundational text of the two biggest religions in the world, Christianity, and Islam. And yet, Scripture posted from this sacred text, which has been widely circulated globally for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, is simply too controversial to post on Facebook.

Facebook’s community standards, it shall be noted, clearly limit the free speech of its users and specifically allow for certain ideology to be suppressed, like the ideology that homosexuality is immoral.

They are in effect limiting the ability of all Bible-believing Christians to simply share their views. If the written Word of God, our sacred text, cannot be quoted, how much more so will our views be censored when we explain that we do no support homosexuality as a tenant of our faith?  Isn’t that in and of itself discrimination based on faith?

Facebook is a private company, but they control millions of transmitted messages all over the globe each day.  Cases of Christian posts being flagged and removed are increasing, while liberal propaganda spreads unchecked on the site.

In fact, the blogger behind conservative site, Activist Mommy, found herself suspended from Facebook for sharing her personal views.  Elizabeth Johnston’s post was removed and her account suspended for stating, in part, that homosexuality is “shameful.”

She shared Biblical scripture and did not attack anyone in her message.  Once the ban on her account was lifted and she stood by her previous post with a new and similar message, Facebook once again removed it.

The Daily Caller reported:

Facebook froze her public account “The Activist Mommy” Feb. 9 and took down the post, saying it did not follow their community guidelines.

“I responded with just scriptural commentary and that is considered ‘hate speech’ by Facebook. It was just very intellectual and it was just a commentary on what the Bible says. There was no name calling or anything like that,” Johnston said about her response.

 “That ticked them off and they didn’t like that at all. It was going viral. Just within a few hours, they had banned me again and they were going to make it more painful,” Johnston said.

Facebook later issued an apology to Johnston, claiming her posts were removed in error – not once, but twice.  Facebook’s statement and Johnston’s reaction were reported by CBN:

“The post was removed in error and we restored it as soon as we were able to investigate,” the Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email. “Our team processes millions of reports each week and we sometimes get things wrong. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused,” the spokesperson added.

Johnston accepted Facebook’s apology but said the suspension was no accident. “Saying this was an accident is a joke! They sent me the post and said it specifically violated their community guidelines. Now they are saying they accidentally stated that and banned me for 10 days accidentally? No! It took a national news story to get my content returned to my page. What about the average Facebook user who doesn’t have that luxury?” she asked.

Now, Johnston is on a mission to expose other examples of Facebook censorship. “I am on a mission now to speak for them. I am receiving messages, screenshots, and evidence from all over the world which proves that Facebook’s system for filtering and banning is punitive against conservatives and Christians.”

Johnston, Severo, and countless others are bringing attention to Facebook’s agenda.  Any conservative or Christian posts can easily be targeted as “hate speech” by founder Mark Zuckerberg and his liberally-biased staff.

Facebook seems to have become another organizing arm of the left to spread its liberal anti-family agenda.  And despite their mission statement, only those who agree with this ideology are allowed to express themselves.