Action 4 Liberty, a Minnesota conservative advocacy group, was recently banned from Facebook.
The social media giant alleged that Action 4 Liberty promoted “graphic violence,” a claim the group disputes. The organization’s founder, Jake Duesenberg, said Facebook did not provide specific “details of the alleged violation.”
Action 4 Liberty contested Facebook’s decision and requested a review of the ban. However, the group received a notice that because Facebook has “fewer reviewers available right now because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak,” they “may not be able to follow up.” Duesenberg’s group also received an explanation of what the site considers “graphic violence,” which includes content that celebrates “humiliation.”
“Our standards on graphic violence are based on people’s different sensitivities,” the tech giant said.
Duesenberg thinks the ban has more to do with politics than any actual graphic content.
“Over the last couple years, we’ve spent over $50,000 in ads on Facebook to alert voters about important political issues at the Capitol or in their communities,” he said. “This ban, which likely could be permanent, will interfere with our supporters’ ability to hear an alternative to the mainstream, COVID narrative. We suspect that’s the motivation.”
Specifically, “Action 4 Liberty posts a lot about fighting against vaccine mandates, which Facebook recently announced it would crack down on. In August, one of our Stop Vaccine Mandates ads was taken down by Facebook,” he said. “We’re the place many people go to get information that’s alternative to the mainstream COVID narrative that continues to be wrong over and over again.”
“No one will stop us from doing what we do,” he concluded, explaining how the group is presently engaged in a large door-knocking campaign to oppose vaccine mandates. “The mission continues!”
Meanwhile, Facebook is at the center of several ongoing controversies involving allegations of political censorship. The site has also been criticized for other controls, or lack thereof, it places on its content. Earlier this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children revealed that Facebook was home to over 20 million examples of content that fit the definition for “child sexual abuse material.” For comparison, the largest pornography website had 13,000 instances of such content.
More recently, a whistleblower said Facebook did little to prevent the spread of media that encourages eating disorders among adolescent girls.