Facebook Temporarily Censors Tennessee Star Articles Critical of Phil Bredesen
Facebook removed three Tennessee Star articles critical of former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, the Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate seat from Tennessee up in this November’s election, from The Tennessee Star Facebook page early Thursday morning.
By early Thursday afternoon, all three of those articles mysteriously reappeared on The Tennessee StarFacebook page, along with four other articles that had also been removed early Thursday.
All told, seven Tennessee Star articles that were posted on The Tennessee Star Facebook page shortly after midnight Thursday morning magically reappeared on The Tennessee StarFacebook page 12 hours later, at about 12:45 p.m. central time Thursday afternoon.
The three articles critical of Phil Bredesen that Facebook did not want its users to read on Thursday morning are these:
“Nashville Predator Crony Capitalist Backs Bredesen As Payback for Democrats’ Help”
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“Phil Bredesen-Supporting Elizabeth Warren Shows No Compassion for Iowa Girl Murdered by Illegal Alien”
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“Phil Bredesen Making Millions Offering Low Cost Solar Deals, But Is He Being Totally Honest?”
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The four other Tennessee Star articles temporarily removed from The Tennessee Star Facebook page are:
“Commentary: The Politicians Who Killed Mollie Tibbets”
“Controversies Surround Thompsons Station Development As November Election Approaches”
“Megan Barry May Still Have More Music to Face Over Affair”
“Metro Council Moves Forward With Subsidized $275 Million Soccer Stadium”
Bredesen’s Republican opponent in the fall general election, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) has been a tough critic of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s privacy policies.
“Blackburn sponsored the Browser Act, which would give Internet users more control over their digital privacy. The Browser Act has gained momentum in the House after reports revealed that Cambridge Analytica used Facebook to gain access to the personal data of more than 87 million users,” Breitbart News reported inApril.
The Tennessee Star appears to be one of many conservative news outlets that Facebook began targeting for censorship and article removal on Thursday morning.
“People are beginning to understand that you have a right to privacy when you go online. You have an expectation of privacy,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn also grilled Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in April during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing about Facebook’s privacy scandal.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News Tonight, Blackburn explained how Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook is “subjective in how they manipulate these algorithms” to censor conservatives.
Pajamas Media reported late Thursday that an article written by well-known conservative New York Post columnist Salena Zito was also among a number of articles temporarily censored by Facebook on Thursday morning.
“Multiple posts sharing articles by prominent conservatives have been temporarily censored on Facebook, under the excuse that they “look like spam.” Both articles dealt with the Paul Manafort conviction and the Michael Cohen guilty plea, arguing that these events were not nearly as damning to President Donald Trump as the media supposed,” Tyler O’Neill reported at Pajamas Media:
“It is becoming increasingly apparent that Facebook not only has a pattern of silencing conservative voices on their platform, it is part of an intentional effort to tip the scales in the political arena to the far Left by intentionally censoring valid and legitimate news that exposes truth they don’t like about Democrat candidates,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said.
First, Facebook blocked Salena Zito, CNN contributor and author of the groundbreaking book “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.” On Wednesday afternoon, Zito published a New York Post article explaining “Why Trump’s supporters won’t care about Cohen and Manafort’s convictions.”
On Thursday morning, she noticed something out of place. “So this is interesting… [Facebook] took down my post of my reporting for the [New York Post] — I’ve received nine separate messages from readers telling me the same thing has happened to them. ‘sup [Facebook]?” Zito asked in a tweet.
Salena Zito shared a picture of the post removed from the social media platform, with a message: “We removed this post because it looks like spam and doesn’t follow our Community Standards.”
“They did put the article back up,” Salena Zito told PJ Media. “They never responded to any of my inquiries.” The author laid out the ways she contacted Facebook: “I first put out a polite tweet, then I direct messaged them, then I sent them a message through the Facebook page, and then I sent a message through support. No answer.”
“There needs to be a fair and open alternative to Facebook that embraces diversity of opinion, particularly opinion, information and insight that is actually mainstream in the vast majority of America,” Gill added.
Facebook’s latest actions come on the heels of a number of other controversial actions taken by the far left Democrat supporting corporate giant that raise a number First Amendment issues.
“A growing number of conservatives are being targeted for censorship on Facebook,” CBN News reported earlier this month:
“Other conservatives have also accused Facebook of censorship and bias,” CBN News added:
Last week, Facebook once again banned popular blogger Elizabeth Johnston, also known as “The Activist Mommy,” later calling the move a “mistake.”
“Apparently, I upset the ‘Thought Police’ over at Facebook with something I posted,” Johnston told CBN News Monday. “When I clicked on Facebook to post something last Wednesday, I couldn’t post and was notified I had been banned for ‘hate speech.’ Facebook refused to tell me what I posted that was hateful, so how am I supposed to prevent an infraction in the future?”
Johnston, who has more than 600,000 followers on Facebook, often speaks out on controversial social issues such as homosexuality and pornographic Sex-Ed curricula in public schools.
Facebook later issued an apology to Johnston after shutting her out.
Prager University, a non-profit organization that creates videos with conservative political views, just tweeted, “We’re being heavily censored on @Facebook.”
According to the university, Facebook deleted at least two videos after labeling them “hate speech.” One of the videos addresses the need for men to be masculine again.
The Tennessee Star will continue to publish hard-hitting fact based stories about political candidates of all stripes.
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