Two weeks after permanently banning several conservative commentators over perceived “hate speech,” Facebook temporarily suspended Candace Owens (shown), the leader of the Blexit movement, for a similar offense. The suspension, originally meant to last seven days lasted only one day as Facebook quickly backed down and returned Owens’ account to an active status after severe social media backlash.
Owens’ crime? A post from May 4, where she listed several poverty statistics and wrote, “Black America must wake up to the great liberal hoax. White supremacy is not a threat. Liberal supremacy is.” Owens was notified that her Facebook account was suspended for seven days because she had violated the website’s “community standards.”
Prior to her account being reinstated, Owens tweeted directly to President Trump to inform him of the situation. “Dear [President Trump], My [Facebook] has been suspended for seven days for posting that white supremacy is not a threat to black America, as much as father absence and liberal policies that incentivize it are,” Owens tweeted. “I am censored for posting the poverty rates in fatherless homes.”
“This post goes against our community standards,” Facebook said of Owens’ post.
After the social network restored Owens’s account, it said, “It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our Community Standards. We want to apologize and let you know that we’ve restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action.”
Great. So, Facebook admitted its mistake so we can all forgive and forget, right?
Not quite. Breitbart has gained access to internal Facebook communications that show that Facebook maintains an internal list of “hate agents,” which includes Owens. Breitbart has released a screenshot of a spreadsheet, in which Owens’ name is listed under the heading of “Extra Credit (We should look into these after we’re done with the above designation analysis.)”
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the existence of the “hate agent” list to Breitbart but claims that Owens has not yet been investigated by the social media giant.
Owens addressed the “hate agent” list on her Facebook page after being reinstated: “Yesterday, an employee of Facebook contacted Breitbart News and leaked an internal memo, revealing that Facebook is offering “extra credit” to employees that can figure out how to segregate me from their platform. This is SERIOUS and Facebook has already confirmed that the document in question is real.”
Based on the revelation that Owens is on this “hate agent” list, she is considering legal action against Facebook.
Owens for one, believes that Facebook and the entire tech sector, including Twitter, Spotify, Apple, Google, and YouTube, are engaged in preemptive election meddling against Donald Trump for 2020. “More and more Americans are waking up to and rejecting the fantastical ideology of the Left. What we’re seeing now are social media companies that are desperate to help subvert a mass awakening,” Owens told Breitbart.
“Facebook is attempting to manufacture a virtual reality for the Democrats by silencing voices that run counter to their party mission, which is to get rid of President Trump and to turn America into a socialist country.”
Owens, 30, has gained notoriety over the past two years due to her conservative political activism and for championing the Blexit movement, which is challenging the leftist political orthodoxy that African Americans and Hispanics should automatically vote for Democrats. Owens was also involved recently in a high-profile tiff with Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) in the House Judiciary Committee. Lieu played a clearly out-of-context clip that appeared to show Owens defending Adolf Hitler. Owens in turn blasted Lieu and the other Democrats on the committee for believing that black people are “stupid” and would not seek out the full clip themselves.
The recent surge in censorship by Facebook may be a direct result of a movement known as the Christchurch Call to Action, a reference to the deadly shootings in New Zealand earlier this year. Ironically, the globalist cabal of countries and tech companies held a summit in Paris, where signatories last week agreed on a non-binding pledge to create an action plan to combat violent extremism online. Signatories include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom. Tech companies who are also signatories include Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, YouTube, Microsoft, Daily Motion, and Qwant.
Conspicuously absent from the list of signatories is the United States. Citing First Amendment concerns, the White House declined to sign the pledge or even send a representative to Paris. So, kudos to President Trump.
The revelation that Facebook is keeping a list of possible “hate agents” isn’t all that surprising but it is still deeply troubling. After the banning of Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Louis Farrakhan from Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram earlier this month, the obvious question becomes, who else is Facebook looking to get rid of?
