MRC Lists 25 Stunning Examples of Big Tech's Censoring of Conservatives in 2020
A new Media Research Center (MRC) Techwatch report examines 25 well-documented examples of Big Tech companies censoring conservatives allegedly by mistake over the past two years.
From President Donald Trump to conservative commentator Candace Owens and even entire news outlets like the New York Post, Big Tech representatives went on a censorship rampage this year, only apologizing for their "mistakes" months later.
"Big Tech's long history of overwhelmingly liberal political bias makes any claim of mistakes made in good faith highly suspect," according to the MRC's Alexander Hall.
Twitter is at the top of the MRC's list with the censoring of the New York Post's Oct. 14 story on Hunter Biden's emails and the connection he and his father Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden allegedly had with a company in Ukraine. Twitter removed the link to the story and blocked its users from sharing the story. Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO, later admitted in a Senate Judiciary Hearing that locking out the newspaper's story was a "mistake."
Twitter unlocked the Post's account two weeks after the incident, according to the newspaper, but not until the censorship damage had plenty of time to impact the election.
The social media company also censored and temporarily suspended commentator Candace Owens. Her crime? She parodied New York Times writer Sarah Jeong's anti-white rants.
Owens swapped out the words "white" and "men" for "black," "Jewish," and "women" in a tweet in order to make a point. Twitter saw no problem with Jeong's anti-white rants but suspended Owens for 12 hours until users cried foul over double standards. Owens' account was reactivated and in response, Twitter's staff claimed to have "made an error."
Hall's report also details how YouTube/Google censored Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, deleting his comments criticizing the Chinese government. He tweeted, "YouTube has deleted every comment I ever made about the Wumao (五毛), an internet propaganda division of the Chinese Communist Party."
A YouTube spokesman later told the MRC, "This appears to be an error in our enforcement systems and we are investigating."
The social media companies Facebook and Instagram are also noted in the MRC's report.
"Both have a history of haphazard censorship against conservative figures," Hall writes.
Earlier this month, Instagram oddly placed a "fact-check" notation on President Trump's Pearl Harbor Remembrance post which contained a photo of the President, First Lady Melania Trump, and a naval officer in uniform saluting the remembrance wall on the USS Arizona Memorial containing the names of sailors and Marines who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The words "Remembering Pearl Harbor" were placed at the top of the image.
Instagram's fact-check read, "Joe Biden is the projected winner of the 2020 US Presidential Election." The true fact is the post had nothing to do with the election and users responded.
The Herald Sun's opinion columnist Rita Panahi tweeted about the company's response.
And the so-called "mistakes" of censorship are still going on during this Christmas season. In a related story, JustTheNews.com reported Facebook has just banned an ad from the group Americans for Limited Government that wished President Trump and Mrs. Trump a Merry Christmas.
The ad was blocked due to a temporary restriction on ads about social issues, elections, or politics, even though the ad clearly did not touch on any of those topics. The group just wanted to send a Christmas message to the President, according to Rick Manning, the group's president.
"So I tried to put money into Facebook to say 'I want to send a Christmas message to President Trump.' I want people to do that. I think that it's important at this time with all the stuff that's going on to remind him that the people of America want to wish him a Merry Christmas and hold him in high regard," Manning explained.
"And so we did that. We tried to put that out and they would not allow us to put money behind it, which was beyond stunning," he said. "But it's their platform and they think that a Christmas message is political. Well, I don't know how to tell them it isn't, but that's their decision. The problem is Facebook isn't a reliable platform anymore and it can't be depended upon."
STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FREE CBN NEWS APP
Click Here Get the App with Special Alerts on Breaking News and Top Stories
Did you know?
God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1.
Support CBN News