Facebook maintains a list of “hate agents” for monitoring and potential termination, according to a source inside the company. Among the names reportedly on the “hate agent” list? Star pundit and black conservative activist Candace Owens.
According to the source, a Facebook employee who spoke exclusively to Breitbart News, the spreadsheet of “hate agents” that includes Owens was posted to an internal employee discussion group initially founded by Brian Amerige, the former Facebook engineer who quit the company over concerns about political intolerance.
The source claimed that the spreadsheet includes the names of prominent right-wing and alternative media figures who were recently banned from the platform.
Candace Owens is also included in the spreadsheet, in a separate category marked “extra credit.”
A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed to Breitbart News that the list exists, and did not deny that Owens’ name appears on it, but believes that there has not yet been an investigation into her.
The spokeswoman also confirmed that the “hate agents” list, which was created in April, was related to the high-profile bans of alternative media figures (including Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer) that occurred on May 2nd.
Breitbart’s source was able to obtain a partial screenshot of the spreadsheet before the current owner of the discussion group began locking people out in response to the internal leak.
The partial screenshot reveals that Owens’ name is indeed on the list, along with the instruction for Facebook employees to “look into” her “after we’re done with the above designation analysis.”
The spreadsheet also appears to track with Owens has or is associated with any “affiliated hate entities.”
The source agreed that the “extra credit” category refers to individuals that Facebook has not yet banned, but is likely to investigate for potential “hate speech” violations and potential banning.
This exclusive story was sent to Breitbart News on the same day that Owens “mistakenly” received seven-day suspension from Facebook for criticizing liberal attitudes towards African-Americans, a topic frequently raised by Owens in her public appearances.
Her post called on Black Americans to “wake up to the great liberal hoax,” and recognize that “liberal supremacy” is currently a greater threat to black Americans than white supremacy.
For this post, Owens received a 7-day ban from Facebook. Facebook has since reversed the ban, stating that they restored her post and removed the block on her account “after confirming that the content didn’t violate our policies.”
In a comment to Breitbart News, a Facebook spokeswoman said:
“As we said earlier today, we mistakenly applied a temporary block to Candace Owens’ account that we have since restored. We recently announced a group of people that we removed from our services for violating our policies. Candace Owens was not one of those people.”
Previous leaks from Facebook have exposed how the platform developed a “deboosting algorithm”designed to covertly suppress (or “shadowban”) certain content-creators on the platform, making their posts less likely to appear on the feeds of users. According to a Facebook insider who spoke to Project Veritas, this code has been used against prominent conservatives on the platform.
Facebook’s recent censorship surge comes amid pressure from foreign governments to clamp down on hate speech. A recent conference of world leaders dubbed the “Christchurch Call for Action” saw the leaders of France, Canada, Germany, Britain and New Zealand among others demanding crackdowns against “violent extremism” on the internet.
The White House refused to co-sign the call for action, citing free speech concerns – but Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and a number of other tech companies were quick to put their names to the declaration.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter, Gab.ai and add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
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