‘No Conservative Group Is Safe from Social Media Censorship
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy claimed conservative Christians are being routinely silenced on social media during a speech this month to the Council of National Policy, concluding “no conservative group is safe.”
“Increasingly, people like us are belittled and forced out of the public square,” declared McCarthy. “Conservative Christians are being silenced in corporate America and the mainstream media — including on social media, where some of the most important conversations of our day are taking place.”
“There are troubling reports that Amazon excluded the Alliance Defending Freedom from its charity program after a smear campaign by a left-wing activist group. As you know, ADF is not some fringe group. It is one of the most respected public-interest law firms in the country, with two cases pending before the Supreme Court,” he continued, adding, “Those cases — Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado and NIFLA v. Becerra — will determine the very future of religious freedom in America.”
“If ADF is not safe from discrimination, no conservative group is safe… And this is not an isolated incident. During the height of the 2016 election, we learned that Facebook employees ‘routinely’ suppressed conservative stories so they wouldn’t show up in Americans’ newsfeeds,” McCarthy proclaimed. “And Twitter has censored run-of-the-mill pro-life advertisements for being ‘inflammatory.’ Think how backward that is. To some in the media and Silicon Valley, the pro-life message is ‘inflammatory’ — but not abortion itself, which tears apart innocent human beings in the womb.”
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“Conservative Christians are being silenced in corporate America and the mainstream media — including on social media, where some of the most important conversations of our day are taking place.”
“There are troubling reports that Amazon excluded the Alliance Defending Freedom from its charity program after a smear campaign by a left-wing activist group. As you know, ADF is not some fringe group. It is one of the most respected public-interest law firms in the country, with two cases pending before the Supreme Court,” he continued, adding, “Those cases — Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado and NIFLA v. Becerra — will determine the very future of religious freedom in America.”
“If ADF is not safe from discrimination, no conservative group is safe… And this is not an isolated incident. During the height of the 2016 election, we learned that Facebook employees ‘routinely’ suppressed conservative stories so they wouldn’t show up in Americans’ newsfeeds,” McCarthy proclaimed. “And Twitter has censored run-of-the-mill pro-life advertisements for being ‘inflammatory.’ Think how backward that is.“
Wasn't this same thread seeded before?
While the generic issue of pro liberal bias and an anti conservative anti Christian censorship occurring across most all internet platforms has been talked about before like any other generic issue, this is a new topic based on news reports of what the US Congress majority leader and possible future Speaker of the House rightly said.
You do not have free speech rights on privately owned websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Censorship only occurs when the government limits your free speech rights.
Religious conservatives need to create their own media sites if Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are a problem for you.
Maybe we will get government to regulate the internet to compel it to treat conservatives and Christians equally to the way secular liberals are treated. Maybe make political and religious speech a protected class that anyone who makes it their livelihood to operate a web site that caters to the public has to equally serve all such speech as would be protected under the 1st amendment elsewhere. Perhaps Google, Facebook , and Twitter would like that. It would be a much better regulation than net neutrality.
You are in luck. With Net Neutrality, you get all of the things you want. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not is a completely different matter of course.
See, that right there is totally antithetical to the Right. Are you a lefty or a righty, Heartland ?
Net neutrality is about to end and not be renewed.
It goes against what I believe in but in this one case I might consider an exception. Or make use of anti trust laws and create free market competition instead of having regulated monopolies. Internet site owners/ the tech industry needs to be compelled to accept and be tolerant of a diversity of political and religious opinion and expression.
How are those a monopoly, unless other social media sites are not being permitted to exist?
Why? Sounds like you're opposed to the free market and want to force privately-owned platforms to publish your dreck. That's rather clearly unconstitutional as well as whiny and pathetic.
By law, these public companies or organizations have to "accomodate" different views or else it is discrimination and censorship.
true so conservatives could post whatever and however much they want on these mediums as well.
However now facebook I believe has a new policy. IF you are advertising political posts now I believe they require you provide them with a social security number so they can verify you are an a American.
stuff changed, it always does.
But the courts said one does, especially when it comes to Trump. Trump blocks idiots...court says he can't do that, although the ones blocked can still read his tweets. The ones blocked by Trump can also re-up on twitter under another name to voice their opinions on Trumps Tweets again. Same as can happen on this site.
Funny, The Courts just made a decision for a private company, but it was ALL ABOUT TRUMP after all.
Be aware, be very aware.....YOU could be next after that ruling !
Trump is the President, so yes it is wrong for him to censor the public on his twitter feed. Only government officials posting officially are bound by that.
The rest of us arent.
Read the fine print before you click accept when you register.
Public schools are part of the government and are funded by the taxpayer money so they are prevented from censoring viewpoints.
That damn evil ACLU is at it again,
I miss the old Vine where we could vote a post or seed up or down. Weren't you banned from the vine?
Oops thought I was responding to Heartland who used to be "Cornhusker for Palin". Curious as to how a cornhusker starts advocating for Northern California succession and a Jeffy state.
Everyone can still see his tweets if they block them. Just like here if you are suspended. You can still read to your hearts desire, and if one is devious, they can re-up under a different name and persona' in order to comment.
"Free Speech" still lives on !!!!!!
Then there’s this evidence of conservatives getting censored:
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you. https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/category/political-news/
Promoting mainstream media, which is all lies, over loony right wing conspiracy sites that always report the truth?? It's terrible, HA, just terrible!!
Just curious if I can say "shut the fuck up" and get away with it?
Generally speaking, the answer is no.
Probably.
But don't question yourself....just be who you are. The cleanup MAY happen later.
Coc cleanup on aisle 22, cleanup on aisle 22 please!
Absolutely. Pity the poor christians. Pity the poor conservatives. Pity the American Nazi Party. Pity the Ku Kluxers. And most of all, pity the poor, "I'm so right because I'm so white," folk.
Ah well. Don't worry about it, Gorsuch kicked the working folk in the teeth and the billionaires got another payday.
Social Media Censorship? Don't think so. I saw many right wing---so called conservative----things on FB claiming that John McCain was a traitor. An absolute lie but there it was. No censorship. Lie speech is free speech, right?
If Klan members and other Christian extremists keep finding that their more vile posts get deleted or their accounts get closed by the social media provider, why don't they just start their own social media service for hate groups and theocrats? That would make far better sense than just whining about it like some of the right wingers here do.
“Increasingly, people like us are belittled and forced out of the public square,”
Though I myself do not see any evidence of this behavior in my region, I would say that perhaps if "people like us" would stop attempting to ram their brand of religion down everyone else's throats they might be better received.
Do secular progressives get some thrill or happiness from seeing conservative Christians expressions restricted on line?
No. Secular progressives stand by in 'shock and awe' as they witness ( conservative christians ) constantly impaling their arses on a cross.
The cross is why we have salvation only through He who died on it so we won’t have to face the 2nd and eternal death.
Did you think before you typed this nonsense? Your psychopathic god sends most people to roast in Hell and you claim that this is eternal life?
How could Jesus have died for your sins when God and Jesus knew that they would rise on the 3rd day? A 48-hour nap is hardly a huge sacrifice.
Sundown Friday to sunup Sunday is the shortest three days in recorded history. Closer to 36 hrs...
Yep that rant pretty much explains why those of us who have a IQ over 100 scorn those who don't.
Spare us the piety, we don't buy it. Anybody who claims to care about that after supporting Trump (all words and actions) has no credibility at all. That's not how it works. And by the way, the basis for this seed is crap.
And is a projection of what he and republicans are actually doing themselves.
Off Topic "BF"
Huh, that's amusing - since everywhere I look - Facebook, Twitter, My neighborhood webpage - Christians are allowed to preach, advertise their fund raisers and condemn people like me to Hell. I do not consider that censorship (by the way - none of those media outlets are the government).
Nicely said, I'll meet you in hell
If you get there before me save me a good spot & I will do the same.
I'll bring the marshmallows for s'mores.
Hell is too serious a fate to make light of. No one who experiences it will be happy there and all can choose to avoid that outcome.
I'll be happy watching born again scum being splayed and barbequed there.
I have 3 religious fundies that constantly post religious screeds on my Facebook feed and they haven't been banned or censored yet.
An atheist group that I am part of often has its posts censored.
So just create your own platform.
Back when nv was still operational I tried to spend some time as well on Fox's news chat forum. Unfortunately once I stopped (stagticily) attacking Obama (to gain acceptance) all of a sudden my posts started getting "poofed" and I was laughed at for even trying to post.
At that time at least, the conservatives certainly had "their own platform".
Conservative platforms get blown up with hate so vile even the owners realize it hurts their causes...
Besides, what motivates the worst RW trolls is to disrupt and eventually get "liberal sites" shut down.
When NV closed only a few RW instigators celebrated proclaiming, "We Won". What does that tell ya?
I miss the vine as it was in the early days before the right wing invasion.
A news networks messages section is not remotely the same thing as social media internet providers.
Conservatives on the vine were always a tiny minority of the total membership there just like here. Why be so intolerant of diversity of political thought and opinion? You don’t see conservatives here or there then constantly complaining about the presence of liberals on the sites. Debate us using your or seeded opinions on the issues instead of simply moaning and bellyaching because we are here.
I agree it is not near as involved, far reaching or connected, but Fox news chatroom was definitely a good old boys club that promoted and protected their own ideological points of view.
I understand many conservative leaning folks have a lot of crap thrown their way on the social media. I think I avoid all most all political crap on facebook by keeping my account in the private category and not crossing over to using facebook's news links at all.
My facebook rarely has "spam"of any sort and Is a great way to keep in touch with what little distant family I have left.
Like I told a good very conservative friend of mine that was telling me about all the liberal spam crap he got constantly ... "Drop the public category on your facebook account and just allow who you want on to your social media account by setting it up as a private facebook account in their settings."
I never intended to go public with my facebook it was and is for my friends, my family and myself. Period
If I want to comment on stuff I come here these days.
Keeping my facebook, No spam, no crap and still quite usable and useful. (and free...lol)
yes it is - it's also considered "social media" since it's a section to be... well... social, correct ? do you think social media means something else besides posting comments and being.. well.. social ? This site itself is also social media - were you aware of that ?
i constantly see the "conservatives" on here whine about "unfair moderation" and whining about "liberals" supposedly taking over this site - do you not read any of the comments ? it happens almost daily including a "conservative" who whined when they found out they had to lock their seeds
yes, that's my advice to the "conservatives" - especially when they whine about moderation or having to lock their seeds, they should just stick to debating using their seeded opinions on issues, correct ?
(don't you just love the constant use of the "victim card" ?)
CoC "BF"
I didn’t realize we were talking specifically about this site in this seed.
I wonder how many conservatives trump has blocked on twitter....oh wait, none.
Off topic [ph]
Do you take checks?
Got an off topic. Null and void.
In other words, YouTube may operate as a public forum but it is a private business and thus may discriminate as it wishes – since it does not bake cakes or provide food or overnight accommodations … or deal with any civil rights that Judge Koh wants to include among protected constitutional rights.
These actions are the hallmarks of communist, fascist and other totalitarian regimes that seek to control all thought, speech, economic activity and other aspects of our lives. They drive policies that further limit our freedoms, kill countless jobs, and cost us billions or trillions of dollars in lost productivity.
The Left is clearly afraid of conservative ideas and principles. It refuses to participate in discussions or debates that it might lose, and instead resorts to mobbing, bullying and violence to silence our voices.
Up to now, lower courts have not always been supportive of the analysis and prescriptions presented in this article. But appellate courts and the Supreme Court have yet to weigh in on the Trump Twitter, Prager YouTube, Google search bias and similar cases. So we are still in uncharted territory.
Conservatives, climate chaos skeptics and true free speech advocates should help create the legal precedents, while also pressing forward to build their own social media forums, and exposing, ridiculing, embarrassing and challenging the dominance of the Intolerant Left. https://townhall.com/columnists/pauldriessen/2018/05/26/public-forums-should-be-open-and-uncensored-n2484576
That's about what I thought when the Fox news chat-room keep poofing my posts.
IMO: Censorship sucks and it doesn't matter who is doing the censorship, left or right.