President Trump’s Advisory Board member Jenna Ellis Rives was blocked by Facebook over a pro-life post. After appealing the block, Facebook got back to her and claimed that she violated the “community standards” on “hate speech” through her post. Even the post by Rives, that explained Facebook’s action further blocked by Facebook. Upon appealing again, Facebook got back to her after four days and stated that the post did not follow the “community standards.”
Rives posted a photo of the tweet by the blogger Matt Walsh where he points out how several key pro-choice arguments are undermined by transgender activism.
“Gender is a social construct but I am woman hear me roar but anyone can be a woman but no uterus no opinion but transwomen are women but I demand women’s rights but men are women but men are scum but drag queens are beautiful but appropriation is evil,” Walsh tweeted.
After the whole blocking incident, here’s what Rives told PJ Media:
“Facebook’s ‘community standards’ simply mean they are… censoring conservative thought. Facebook continues to suppress conservatives critiquing the progressive left and calling out their hypocrisy. We never see this kind of suppression when it’s actual hatred from the left, for instance, attacks against Mike Pence for his Christian beliefs.”
Rives, a constitutional lawyer and author, had faced similar experiences with Facebook in the past. Before Rives joined Trump’s campaign, she wrote an article explaining the convictions of Manafort and Cohen and how they didn’t put President Trump in legal trouble. Upon sharing this article on Facebook, it was immediately taken down.
A similar post by Salena Zito, a CNN contributor was also taken down and Facebook cited that their posts were “spam.” At that point of time, many liberal outlets were speculating that the Manafort and Cohen convictions could bring down Trump and their posts were not taken down or banned by Facebook. However, the two conservative voices speaking against it were immediately silenced.
It is to be noted that Facebook, Instagram, and several other “big-tech” companies have banned many conservative voices in the recent past. Incidents like these outline the fact that there is a widespread ban imposed on the conservative voices by the “big tech.” Recently, high profile conservative individuals Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Looms, Alex Jones of Infowars and Paul Joseph Watson were banned by Facebook.
Rives said that she suspects the timing of the ban considering the ongoing circumstances. Right when abortion issues are under severe debate after the powerful pro-life bill was passed by the Alabama Senate, the conservative voices were blocked whereas several Democratic candidates contesting the 2020 elections have attacked the bill haven’t suffered from any such bans. Many of these Democratic candidates were also celebrating transgender identities in the month of March.
“This is what Facebook does. They censor conservative thought on key issues at key moments to keep us from commenting against the left’s narrative. Then once the news cycle has had 24-48 hours, Facebook comes back with some lame apology and blames their ‘algorithms.’ It’s happened to me personally several times now at key moments for conservative politics with my posts or opinion pieces, and other prominent conservative voices,” Rives said.
It is also strange to see that Facebook specifically blocked a Trump Advisory Board member’s post whereas several other people re-sharing the same tweet on Facebook in the form of a written post weren’t banned or blocked.
“It’s also very suspect as a member of the Advisory Board. I didn’t even editorialize, just posted a screenshot of Matt’s tweet with an emoji. How is that possibly against their ‘community standards?'” asked Rives.
Also, Facebook has not yet apologized to Rives in this particular case and hasn’t revoked the ban yet. Unlike many similar cases like these, Facebook did not end up blaming the block on its “algorithms” and has flat out refused to offer any explanation.
