October 30, 2012

Did Facebook really censor a political message?

Censorship Facebook

One would think that Facebook had learned its lesson about censorship. It has a hard enough time keeping self-harm and pornography off its pages and has run into troubles in the past over less-controversial censorship accusations. wbyx8-1Now, Breitbart is reporting that a meme published by the Special Operations Speaks Political Action Committee (SOS PAC) was removed and the person who posted it was given a 24-hour “time out” from posting other images on Facebook.

The message was contained in a meme which demonstrated how Obama had relied on the SEALS when he was ready to let them get Osama bin Laden, and how he had turned around and denied them when they called for backup on Sept 11.
If this is true and Facebook is now in the business of taking down political messages that fall well-within the realm of free speech, they have some explaining to do. We’ve read the terms of service a few different times over the years (at least once every time they change it) and this is could only fall under the realm of offensive if they want to point in that direction. Unfortunately for Facebook, there is much more offensive content posted on a regular basis that never gets taken down. Is this an unwritten policy at Facebook? Is it a rogue moderator who supports the president’s re-election campaign? Could it be something more sinister? We’ll probably never know, but regardless of which side of the political aisle you’re on it’s a hard argument to make that this was too offensive to be on the walls of Facebook pages. * * * “Censorship” image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Disclosure:

Some of the links in this article are affiliate links and we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, which helps us to keep delivering quality content to you.

JD Rucker

JD Rucker is Editor at Soshable, a Social Media Marketing Blog. He is a Christian, a husband, a father, and founder of both Judeo Christian Church and Dealer Authority. He drinks a lot of coffee, usually in the form of a 5-shot espresso over ice.

10 thoughts on “Did Facebook really censor a political message?

  1. I thought you were going to either affirm or deny that FB had done this. For me, a useless article. People will believe what they want.

  2. This is unbelievable. There has been a very large effort to snuff out this Libya scandal. They have lied so many times. The new media has succeeded though. Americans deserve to know the truth about 9/11/12! The video guy is still in jail by the way. Hillary told the family of the fallen that the video guy would pay for it. Terrorists don’t need an excuse to attack us.

  3. This is unbelievable. There has been a very large effort to snuff out this Libya scandal. They have lied so many times. The new media has succeeded though. Americans deserve to know the truth about 9/11/12! The video guy is still in jail by the way. Hillary told the family of the fallen that the video guy would pay for it. Terrorists don’t need an excuse to attack us.

  4. This is unbelievable. There has been a very large effort to snuff out this Libya scandal. They have lied so many times. The new media has succeeded though. Americans deserve to know the truth about 9/11/12! The video guy is still in jail by the way. Hillary told the family of the fallen that the video guy would pay for it. Terrorists don’t need an excuse to attack us.

  5. FB has no more explaining to do than the current administration has…If our constitution can be trampled routinely without any significant reaction from congress then why should we be surprised if FB were to trample their own TOS?….Good article JD.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Stories

US DOJ Drops Bid To Make Google Sell AI Investment in Antitrust Case

US DOJ Drops Bid To Make Google Sell AI Investment in Antitrust Case

Mar 8, 2025

Google has a little respite in the antitrust case. The U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped the clause to...

Google Reports AI Deepfake Terrorism Complaints to Australia’s eSafety Commission

Google Reports AI Deepfake Terrorism Complaints to Australia’s eSafety Commission

Mar 6, 2025

In an era where artificial intelligence has almost reshaped the digital landscape, the concerning bit is it keeps dusting ugly...

Musk Attempt to Stop OpenAI Transition into a for-Profit Entity Turned Down by Judge

Musk Attempt to Stop OpenAI Transition into a for-Profit Entity Turned Down by Judge

Mar 5, 2025

Elon Musk co-founded Open AI and was a major financial contributor to it from 2015 to 2020, as per the...

OpenAI Faces Legal Scrutiny over Copyright Claims, as Alec Radford gets Subpoenaed

OpenAI Faces Legal Scrutiny over Copyright Claims, as Alec Radford gets Subpoenaed

Mar 5, 2025

Who knew AI models would end up needing copyright lawyers more than programmers? The more artificial intelligence transforms an industry,...