Update – May 17, 2019: Facebook has restored Candace Owens’ page and says that it made a mistake when removing her post.
Candace Owens is the latest conservative commentator to fall victim to Facebook’s recent ramp up in censorship. One of her posts talking about black poverty statistics has been taken down by Facebook for supposedly violating its community guidelines. Owens says that Facebook also suspended her page for seven days after it removed the post.
Here’s the message Facebook sent to Owens after taking her post down:
The Facebook post contains a screenshot of a tweet which says:
“Poverty rate among blacks: 22%
Poverty rate among whites: 11%
Poverty rate among MARRIED blacks: 7%
Do not let liberal supremacists convince you that white people are the problem at the same time that their policies encourage the 77% father absence rate in black households.”
Owens captioned the screenshot with:
“Black America must wake up to the liberal hoax. White supremacy is not a threat. Liberal supremacy is.”
She shared the news that Facebook had taken down her post on Twitter and said:
“Dear @realDonaldTrump,
My @facebook page has been suspended for 7 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.
I am censored for posting the poverty rates in fatherless homes.”
The takedown of Owens’ post comes days after President Trump announced a national social media censorship survey which allows US citizens to report examples of politically motivated online censorship. Owens appears to be tagging President Trump in the post to share her story as part of this initiative.
The censorship of Owens’ follows Facebook purging a number of high profile conservative figures from its platform for supposedly being “dangerous.” It also comes after conservative commentator Michelle Malkin had a photo featuring Laura Loomer and Gavin McInnes taken down for apparently breaking its rules. In both instances, Facebook provided no evidence of how the people were “dangerous” or how the posts went against its community standards.
