A number of pro-Trump groups and individuals representing women and minorities that are active on social media are being silenced in these days and weeks before the US presidential election.
Whether or not Facebook thought it could just, out of the blue and under the radar ban the The New Jersey Women For Trump – the group’s not going down quietly.
Co-director of New Jersey Women For Trump Priscilla Confrey told local media that the private group had 29,000 members when it was removed on Saturday, without a word of explanation from Facebook.
Confrey said that she is currently trying to contact the corporation by email in order to have the group reinstated, and would otherwise reach out to legislators for help. In the meantime, Trump himself got involved, asking for the group to be allowed back on the platform.
Facebook was still silent on the issue as of Sunday, offering no explanation either to the group’s owners or to the press curious to find out why this has happened.
With no official reason given, one could speculate that this was either one of Facebook’s “technical” errors stemming from its poor algorithmic flagging, or a deliberate attempt to “deplatform” a nearly 30,000-strong group of women who support Trump in a state that has for decades voted Democrat.
Either way, the move may have been counterproductive. Not only has the same community started a new group while awaiting the outcome of the appeals made on Facebook to reinstate the original one – but their indignation over the ban doesn’t seem to signal any change of heart in their support for Trump.
Confrey described this kind of censorship only three days before the election and with no explanation as appalling, at the same time accusing social media companies of having “too much power.”
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