Facebook is ramping up censorship and First Amendment squelching ahead of debate between President Trump and President Joe Biden.
TRENTON, NJ—It’s happening again. In the past 30 days, Facebook has ramped up its censorship and blocks on Freedom of Speech by flagging, tagging, and deleting posts by many news organizations that are not in the tank for the progressive movement and Democratic party.
Facebook has come under scrutiny once again for its role in moderating content that could influence the political landscape in the United States, particularly during the heated 2024 presidential campaign. Multiple posts by Shore News Network have been flagged and removed by Facebook’s AI moderation systems, labeled as “spam,” violations of “community content policy,” and “incorrect fact-checking.”
“Facebook has been off the rails,” said Shore News Network editor Phil Stilton. “For 4 years, as a company and personally, we avoided Facebook because of its extreme prejudice and censorship of conservative media. We tried earlier this year to see if anything had changed, but the platform’s AI algorithm is definitely biased against non-progressively aligned sources.”
Stilton says the company has run multiple tests against the Facebook AI Algorithm in the past 30 days and found that most posts covering former President Trump, activities by his supporters, and announcements have been flagged for multiple issues, whereas other tests that included posting stances and statements by President Joe Biden with similar content and context went uncensored.
“Facebook is trying to hide from America what is actually going on in America,” Stilton added. “The truth is many Americans are suffering from inflation, high energy costs, high food costs, and each time we report on the real problems, Facebook’s AI Algorithm flags content and removes it. Luckily, Americans are smarter today than they ever have been and more engaged, so Facebook’s censorship, while dangerous, has no real impact on what people are seeing with their own eyes.”
The removed content primarily covers politically sensitive topics, including Joe Biden’s public gaffes, Hunter Biden’s criminal trial, and other incidents portraying the current administration in a potentially unfavorable light. The application of AI in these instances, which lacks context understanding, has sparked allegations of biased censorship favoring the Democratic and progressive agendas.
“After requesting reviews for community violations and having most overturned, the AI is now flagging content simply as ‘spam’, on our page, a measure that they do not really offer any recourse for from publishers like us,” he added. “As usual, the platform is trying to censor free speech, but that’s nothing new. We expect nothing less from Facebook.”
Historically, Facebook has faced accusations of political bias and censorship, drawing criticism from political figures and free speech advocates. The platform’s reliance on AI algorithms to detect and manage misinformation has been particularly controversial, with critics arguing that it disproportionately targets conservative viewpoints without sufficient transparency or recourse for affected parties.
The ongoing debate over free speech and political bias on social media platforms raises significant questions about the balance between preventing misinformation and upholding free expression. As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the actions of major platforms like Facebook continue to be a focal point for discussions on media influence and democratic integrity.
“The best thing about companies like Facebook using AI is that it’s very easy to unravel their algorithms because, aside from being extremely predictable, they are very easy to test,” he added. “There’s a reason people are fleeing the platform and why it is really no longer where people go to get news anymore.”
This year, Facebook phased out it’s entire news sharing content platform. The company claims people don’t come to Facebook for news, but Stilton says that’s not true.
“Our 100,000 or so followers are very engaged with our news,” Stilton said. “It’s Facebook that doesn’t want people getting news on Facebook. We used to get millions of referrals per month from the platform, and over the years, Facebook has intentionally changed its platform to keep people from getting news from any sources that are contrary to their beliefs. They do this by pushing down content and keeping content publishers from using the platform to reach their audience they cultivated, in our case, over the past 15 years.”
