And for nearly as long the social media behemoth has claimed that such allegations aren’t true, that Facebook absolutely does not censor content based on political ideology and, specifically, Right-leaning political speech.
A number of studies done by conservative websites and news outlets have produced more than anecdotal evidence to support claims that their content was being negatively impacted by Facebook algorithms, as evidenced mostly by the fact that traffic from their Facebook pages suddenly began suffering in early 2018.
In March 2018, for example, The Western Journal — a right-leaning news site that was one of the first to report on the diminished traffic — found that after Facebook altered its algorithm, that it was “crushing conservative sites” while boosting traffic to Left-wing sites.
Now, undercover journalists at James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas have proven that the censorship is real, that it is directed specifically at conservative news sites, and that the social media platform has made a concerted effort to negatively impact the reach of conservative opinion and thought.
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1100764171392692224
Project Veritas spoke to a former Facebook insider who was responsible for reviewing content in the social media behemoth’s intellectual property department and who lost her job after speaking out about what was going on. (Related: BOMBSHELL: Facebook whistleblower exposes malicious algorithm to shadow ban and “de-boost” conservative content.)
‘Deboosting’ codes and tags placed on conservative pages
The information provided by the former insider “describes how Facebook engineers plan and go about policing political speech,” Project Veritas said in a press release. “Screenshots from a Facebook workstation show the specific technical sections taken against political figures, as well as ‘[e]xisting strategies’ taken to combat political speech.”
Some of the strategies include suspending or deleting “bad accounts,” deleting “bad content,” and demoting “bad content.” The so-called “special features” of censorship are triggered at various times including “leading up to important elections,” according to documents the undercover journalism group obtained.
The former Facebook insider interviewed by Project Veritas (and later hired by the organization) left the social media giant in February 2018. “I saw things that were going on that I personally found to be troubling,” she said.
Project Veritas noted further:
According to the insider, the documents revealed a routine suppression of the distribution of conservative Facebook pages. The technical action she repeatedly saw, and for which Project Veritas was provided documentation, was labeled ActionDeboostLiveDistribution. Said the insider, “I would see [this term] appear on several different conservative pages. I first noticed it with an account that I can’t remember, but I remember once I started looking at it, I also saw it on Mike Cernovich’s page, saw it on Steven Crowder’s page, as well as the Daily Caller’s page.”
Crowder, a conservative commentator with TheBlaze TV, noted that his Facebook page was suppressed in April 2016, as POTUS Trump was ticking off victories in Republican primaries and emerging as the party favorite. He told Project Veritas he and Facebook settled a dispute related to the suppression out of court.
When asked to comment on Project Veritas’ new findings, Crowder said through attorney Bill Richmond:
Louder With Crowder is investigating the allegations of concealed stream throttling by Facebook. The accusations are deeply troubling given the previously settled dispute with Facebook uncovered by Gizmodo.com, which found the show was targeted by Facebook workers with secret audience restrictions on political grounds alongside other prominent conservative voices.
This is real, it’s not a conspiracy
The investigative report noted that a screenshot of an action log for Cernovich, an independent journalist who has exposed various Deep State scandals, provided by the whistleblower has the same tag — “ActionDeboostLiveDistribution.” The insider said she believes the ‘deboost’ code is used to suppress distribution of content including live stream video feeds on the platform.
Project Veritas spoke to a current employee with Facebook who noted that the code could definitely limit the visibility of news feeds, disable interactive features, and remove sharing functions.
Asked about the findings, Cernovich said that Facebook could simply “make stuff up” about people using their censorship tools which, of course, is problematic.
“Facebook, or an individual at Facebook, has the unilateral power to create false allegations against someone he or she doesn’t like. The person accused not only can’t do anything about the allegation, they don’t even have an idea the allegation was made,” Cernovich told Project Veritas.
But is the code/tag only being used on conservative sites? The insider told Project Veritas she never saw it on pages belonging to Left-wing media or liberal figures. “I looked at the Young Turks’ page, I looked at [former NFL quarterback] Colin Kaepernick’s page, none of them had received the same deboost comment,” she said.
“I think that the biggest thing, that getting the documents, getting video or still pictures of what was going on that shows that it is actually happening,” she continued. “This isn’t rumors, they talk about how right-wingers, they come up with all these crazy theories, and that’s not actually happening at these social media companies. They pooh pooh it. But here it is and it’s in your face.”
She adds: “They did not want the public to know and yet the public has a right to know.”
To read more about how this kind of censorship will lead to Facbook’s collapse, go to FacebookCollapse.com.
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