Report: Facebook Blocking ‘Back the Blue’ Fundraisers

Facebook reportedly blocked promotion for a fundraising event aimed at supporting law enforcement, part of a Florida distillery’s wider efforts to support first responders, according to local news in Tampa.

The Loaded Cannon distillery in Bradenton, Florida, has been attempting to launch a new range of drinks themed around police, fire, and EMS, with part of the revenue going to support first responders.

“Facebook won’t let them advertisers because it views their support of police, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders as being too sensitive and too political,” reported FOX13 Tampa.

The distillery planned a “back the blue” event on May 29, aimed at raising funds for nonprofits that support law enforcement.

According to FOX13, attempts to promote the event through Facebook’s paid advertisement feature have proven impossible, with multiple attempts to promote the event rejected by the tech giant.

According to a message from Facebook to the distillery seen by FOX13, the platform claims that ads for the event mention “sensitive social issues that could influence public opinion, how people vote, and may imapct the outcome of an election or pending legislation.”

It’s not the first time Facebook has displayed bias against first responders.

Law Enforcement Today, the largest police-owned media outlet in the U.S., has been blocked from posting on Facebook on numerous occasions. The website’s ad account was blocked from using Facebook’s ad feature in January.

This followed a full-scale block of Law Enforcement Today’s Facebook account a month earlier, in which the outlet’s account on the platform was effectively frozen.

More recently, in messages seen by Breitbart News, followers of Law Enforcement Today’s national spokesman, Kyle Reyes, followers of Reyes report receiving messages from Facebook informing them that they have been prevented from reacting to his posts, to “prevent misuse.”

Breitbart News has reached out to Facebook for comment.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.