Alternative Social Media Sites Condemn Facebook’s Blacklisting of Conservatives

Following Facebook’s recent blacklisting of a number of conservative figures, alternative social media sites have condemned the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe.

Recently, Breitbart News reported that Instagram and its parent company Facebook has banned a number of conservative personalities from its platforms. This included Infowars host Alex Jones, Infowars contributor and YouTube star Paul Joseph Watson, journalist and activist Laura Loomer, and Milo Yiannopoulos. Louis Farrakhan was notably also banned from the platforms at the same time despite not being a conservative. Facebook commented on the mass banning stating: “We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology. The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”

Now, alternative social media sites have come out in opposition to Facebook’s recent banning spree. Breitbart News spoke with Andrew Torba, the Founder and CEO of free-speech centered social media platform Gab.com. Torba has long criticized Silicon Valley companies for their restrictive policies on free speech.

Torba stated:

Silicon Valley has been beta testing their 2020 election interference strategy for over a year now. The censorship started with prominent controversial dissident voices, but the objective is to silence anyone who questions the status quo. Initially we saw these companies ban Milo, then Alex Jones, then Laura Loomer.

Now Facebook is also threatening to ban anyone who shares Alex Jones memes or links to Infowars content. Breitbart News, ZeroHedge, and Fox News can’t be far behind. The scary thing is they will be using artificial intelligence to automatically detect any photos containing Alex Jones, any soundbites containing his voice, and any links containing Infowars content. All of these will be instantly removed and if folks share them a number of times they too will be banned.

Don’t look to the government for help. The only way to take power away from Silicon Valley is to stop using their products and to build or support those like Gab who are building alternatives grounded in freedom for all. Soon Gab will be releasing our free speech web browser which will stop Silicon Valley tracking technology and empower users to escape the grasp Big Tech has on their data. We encourage anyone who wants to take back control of their data and cut off Big Tech’s flow of money that comes from that data to stay tuned for the upcoming release of our free speech web browser.

Breitbart News also spoke with John Matze, the CEO of social media platform Parler. Breitbart News interviewed Matze about Parler recently, the full interview can be found here. Matze discussed the recent banning of conservatives across Facebook stating:

Facebook’s justification behind banning figures like Alex Jones, Milo, Loomer and Paul Joseph Watson is intentionally ambiguous. This allows them to selectively target strong political opposition influencers their own perceived benefit while their lobbies are working in DC on legislation. According to the Pew research center, in 2018 70 percent of Americans think this is intentional and political. Facebook provided no concrete examples or transparency and based their entire claims on emotional words like “hate”, “dangerous”, etc… Social media should not be in the business of politics, creating news, and manipulating society. Parler would NEVER abuse user trust for political gain, it is wrong. We stand behind even the most controversial influencers as long as they abide by very clearly defined rules while they are on our platform.

Facebook appears to show no signs of reversing these bans and has set a future precedent that the company can decide which users are “dangerous” on an ideological basis with little justification. Breitbart News will continue to report on developments surrounding Facebook.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com