Conservatives Launch Facebook Alternative
Conservatives Launch Facebook Alternative
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Jan 31, 2013
By Todd Starnes
A group of conservatives is launching their own social networking site after enduring what they call years of censorship and liberal bullying on Facebook.
The Tea Party Community is expected to officially launch on Saturday – but the social networking site for conservatives has already drawn nearly 50,000 members.
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“It’s a new home for conservatives and the Tea Party movement in America,” said co-founder Ken Crow. “It’s a social community just for them.”
Crow partnered with Tim Selaty Sr. and Jr. to launch the new site last November – a “safe haven for the conservative movement where we can share ideas and thoughts and express ourselves without fear of retribution.”
“Most of us are subjected to censorship on Facebook,” Crow told Fox News. “I’ve been suspended there as have many of my friends. You also absorb a lot of abuse from liberals.”
Crow and many other conservatives believe Facebook is intentionally targeting conservatives.
“There’s absolutely no question in my mind,” he said.
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Jan Morgan Harrison, another prominent Tea Party conservative, said she strongly believes there is a bias against conservatives.
Harrison, who has more than 300,000 followers, said she’s been censored and sanctioned a number of times for her pro-Second Amendment postings. She’s become a vocal supporter of The Tea Party Community.
“I think Facebook needs some competition,” she told Fox News. “I know that when I go there and make a post it won’t be censored. It’s not going to be deleted. It has a long way to go as far as building up followers, but it does give us an alternative.”
As many as 100 Facebook users contacted Fox News with complaints that the social networking site had either removed conservative content or blocked them for posting conservative content.
Amy Jo Clark and Miriam Weaver were among those who received a threat from Facebook about the content on their conservative site, “Chicks on the Right.”
“We’ve been hearing non-stop, email after email, tweet after tweet, of other folks who are facing the same issues,” Weaver told Fox News. “There’s a very active liberal trolling community whose sole purpose is to get themselves busy reporting conservative pages and trying to cause trouble.”
The liberal “trolls” are taking advantage of a Facebook algorithm that focuses on pages with controversial content.
Fox News published a story about the “Chicks on the Right” – and afterwards Facebook not only lifted the threat but apologized to “Chicks on the Right.”
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The Chicks on the Right
The “Chicks” have more than 100,000 followers – and have become celebrities in the conservative movement. But smaller Facebook communities are not so lucky.
“Had we not gotten exposure on Fox News, we’d be off line right now,” Clark said.
“Some of the smaller sites are getting pinged and hit by these liberal trolls and there’s no one they can talk to.”
Facebook did not return email messages seeking comment.
The “Chicks” said they are glad to throw their support behind the alternative Facebook community.
“I think people are feeling the frustration with the trolls out there trying to shut them down,” Clark said. “People are disillusioned.”
It’s no surprise The Tea Party Community has a very similar look and feel to Facebook.
“That was intentional,” Crow said. “We didn’t want there to be a learning curve for the new members.”
You can “friend” people and “like” posts. You can also join pages and meet up with like-minded conservatives in your home state. And like Facebook – The Tea Party Community is free of charge.
Crow said he’s not surprised by the popularity of The Tea Party Community. He expects it to become not just a social networking site – but a political networking site.
“This helps us begin the organizational process of the Tea Party movement,” Crow said. “We’ve been a little too disorganized. It cost us the election in 2012. We’ve all agreed – never again.”
But at the end of the day – for many conservatives The Tea Party Community is a safe haven – a place where like-minded Americans can safely converse.
“Conservatives are desperate right now to find an outlet where they can speak freely and not worry about liberal trolls and censorship,” Weaver said.
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