Dear Friends,
Once upon a time when Facebook first came online in 2004, it was an environment that allowed a robust sharing of views. Christians, feminists, communists, National Socialists, Buddhists, atheists, homosexual activists and just about everyone else were free to say their piece. I recall ‘community standards’ were in place early on, but they weren’t used to censor viewpoints back then. In the beginning I remember Facebook did censor some things that most reasonable people would agree should be censored in a public forum where children are present. Pornography and graphic, gratuitous violence was censored on Facebook back then. Those days are over.
In recent years Conservatives have been complaining that the enforcement of Facebook’s community standards seem to be slanted against them. News that favours conservative viewpoints tends not to trend while news favorable to liberals always trends. People who are vocal in favour of the pro-life and pro-family viewpoint seem to have their accounts shut down for saying very little, while left wing pages containing all sorts of vulgarity and hate speech remain accessible on Facebook.
This week Facebook released a public statement at the conclusion of their investigation of themselves for bias against conservatives saying, ‘we were unable to substantiate any of the specific allegations of politically-motivated suppression of subjects or sources, as reported in the media.’
Facebook’s deletion of my account is clear evidence of bias against socially conservative viewpoints. What should also be concerning for Christians and parents who care about what their children are exposed to is what Facebook is no longer banning ie: pornography and graphic snuff films.
In my view Facebook has actually become a politically correct sewer. Unfortunately, breaking away from the sewer might be too much work for North America’s psychologically and spiritually emasculated Christians. I note many Christian charities chose to keep their PayPal accounts, even after the anti-Christian Jewish CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman tried to punish the Christian governor of North Carolina by closing PayPal’s call center in the state to protest the passing of a law prohibiting transvestite males from accessing women’s and girls bathrooms and change rooms.
Closing a PayPal account is only a minor inconvenience. I closed mine and it has barely effected my ability to do online shopping or send and receive money, as many options exist. Facebook on the other hand is the premier social media tool with which people are dependent on to communicate with friends and acquaintances. Many Christian charities, lobby groups and churches rely on Facebook as an important modicum for advertising and getting their messages out to supporters and the wider community.
The reality is more than a billion people and millions of organizations, businesses and charities (many of them Christian and conservative) are dependent on Facebook for their communicating. While Facebook is not banning every Christian from its platform it has shown a consistent pattern of selectively deleting posts and banning individuals and groups, especially if they are outspoken on the topics of immigration, Islam, abortion, homosexuality and transgenderism. The anti-Christian and socially liberal multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg was caught on an open microphone promising German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would censor posts on Facebook that were critical of her open door, mass immigration policy; a policy that many reasonable people realize is leading Germany to a cultural and social breakdown. Facebook’s bias and censorship is a problem and I would suggest Christians and conservatives need to put some serious effort into either finding or creating new social media platforms that are able to become popular and are less hostile to their values.
Some of the mainstream media are claiming the accusations of censorship leveled at Facebook are either overblown or lacking evidence. In my little world I will demonstrate one act of banning by Facebook’s censors and two instances where they chose not to ban and you can draw your own conclusion.
On Facebook graphic pornography now seems to be ok.
A left leaning ex-Facebook friend of mine actually reported a pornographic post and Facebook account. The fellow is no ideological friend of mine, he supports homosexual rights, abortion and legalized drug use. None the less, I communicated with the fellow off and on and it seems he did not want unsolicited pornography posted in his group, so when a spammer posted porn he reported it.
Here is a censored version of what my left leaning friend and others in his group was exposed to:
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If you are still skeptical, here is the offending Facebook page after it was reported. My friend says he got a message that this account ‘Does not violate community standards.’ It is still up for the world to see. (Warning this page is pornographic) and probably fake:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id … 44&fref=ts
I don’t recommend looking at his, her, its Facebook page unless you have doubts about the veracity of my censored pic. What you will see on the page is pornographic films and what appears to be a fake account. Facebook reviewed this account and even though the account is a porn spammer and likely isn’t even the person it is claiming to be, Facebook decided this account and its habit of sending out unsolicited porn ‘Does not violate community standards.’
While I have never reported offensive views or arguments from leftists or homosexuals, I reported this Facebook account below when I was a member in good standing a few months months back. I don’t recommend following the link below unless you really feel the need to verify what I am saying is true. This fellow uses his Facebook account to post spam, promising fake internet jobs in the comments section of the National Post. When I went to his account to report the spam he was sending, I came across this horrific video of a woman getting her stomach cut open. The video was sufficiently horrific I did not finish watching it. I took this picture partway through so you can get an idea what Facebook now allows without exposing yourself to the actual video. I was informed a day later the video ‘Does not offend community standards.’
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The account is here and the video is about 3 months back (warning graphic violence): https://www.facebook.com/dlsahad.zebari
Then there is my post. My post contains arguments that transgenderism is the promotion of falsehood, that the pro-life movement should remain opposed to homosexuality and transgenderism if they are going to be faithful in upholding the culture of life and bible verses. There is no threats, no spam, no porn. True my post could be offensive to homosexual activists and leftists. But doesn’t pornography and graphic violence offend people too? Here is the verbatim post I made before my Facebook account was permanently deactivated:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10512
Whether you agree with my post or not, it is 100% views and for Facebook to resort to account deactivation for my post and yet allow posts that contain violence, profanity and pornography is hypocritical.
Historically freedom of speech has been protected to insure unpopular arguments could be heard and considered. Freedom of speech was never intended to protect the dissemination of pornography or gratuitous violence. Pornographic and snuff films contain no philosophical message, they are simply used for masturbation and lead to personal, family, spiritual, and societal decay.
At any rate I have diversified my own online presence as I am on VK.com and I have my own site http://www.freenorthamerica.ca where censorship is mostly non-existent (except porn, actual spam, harassment or bullying.) Notwithstanding my own attempts to have channels of communication independent of Facebook, at this time I recognize Facebook is big and influential, regardless of my attempts to encourage social conservatives to minimize their dependency on this hostile entity.
To that end I requested that my good friend and lawyer Tom Schuck serve Facebook’s legal counsel with a demand letter that my account be reinstated and that Facebook cease from its censorship of Christian conservatives. While Facebook claims to be private, we should note Facebook has been supportive of governments forcing Christian bakers to bake homosexual wedding cakes and photographers to take pictures of homosexual weddings even if the said business owners believe this is wrong and contrary to their conscience.
The Christian businesses that typically decline homosexual wedding cakes and photo shoots are small and have no capacity to significantly influence public opinions or elections. Facebook on the other hand is huge. Its net worth is now larger than Walmart’s ($245 Billion) and unlike Walmart, Facebook has proven it has the ability to shape public opinion and even destabilize national governments.
Facebook was recognized by Business Insider as being instrumental in helping the Euromaidan protesters overthrow the Ukraine’s government in 2014. Republicans and Democrats alike are aware the battle for undecided voters in the upcoming election will be waged heavily on Facebook. Germany’s Chancellor Merkel was sufficiently unnerved by the protests of Germany’s citizens who took to Facebook to denounce her immigration policies, she asked Zuckerberg to censor her country’s anti-mass immigration movement and he did.
Surely if Christian bakeries with one employee and a net worth of under $100,000 have to face government scrutiny because the occasional homosexual has to go a block further down the street to get their queer wedding cake, then surely Jewish owned Facebook should be answerable when they exercise their power to censor of millions of conservative users, destabilize governments, and affect the outcomes of elections. Ideally, it would be even better if Christians and conservatives decided the censorship of Christian values and promotion of perversity by Facebook was unacceptable voted with their mouse pads to go elsewhere.
In Christ’s Service
Bill Whatcott
‘Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
‘That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.’’
Romans 3:4