Politics

California GOP Senate candidate Erin Cruz: Social media climate against conservatives a ‘clear and present danger’ to Republic

As we reported Friday, Erin Cruz, a Republican running to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was banned by the social media giant over a post she made years ago.  In an email to the Conservative Firing Line, Cruz said this was not the first ban she received this week and warned that the current anti-conservative climate on social media presents “a clear and present danger” to the Republic.

The first “ban,” she explained, appeared to be a “glitch,” but the ban we covered lasted 24 hours and, she added, “deeply impacted” her federal campaign.

“I have contacted attorneys and am concerned this will continue to happen as we draw close to the Primary election,” she told us.

“Free speech, free and open elections are important and the current liberal climate of social media toward conservatives is frightening and poses a clear and present danger to our Republic,” she added.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Cruz is right — if only one side is allowed to be seen or heard by tech giants, voters will not be able to make an informed choice on election day.  While that model was all the rage in certain 20th century dictatorships, it doesn’t work in the United States.

Cruz said she’s not sitting still and and will continue to seek legal counsel.

“I can’t sit and wonder when they will shut down my account again,” she said.

Cruz told us that Google has also presented a problem.  According to Cruz, the Silicon Valley giant has been “pushing legitimate and important emails to trash and junk, even after we mark recipients as not ‘junk’ or ‘trash.’”  This, she added, has become a daily issue.

Is this just a coincidence?  “Probably not,” she opined.

Cruz is not the first GOP candidate to get slapped by the social media giant recently dubbed “Iron FistBook” by political cartoonist A.F. Branco.

As we and others reported in March, Facebook issued a 30-day ban against Austin Petersen, a longtime Libertarian now running as a Republican against Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri.  Petersen was handed a ban over something the site previously said did not violate their terms of service.

“Austin’s AR15 giveaway video has been removed from Facebook, despite complying with all Terms of Service and having over 24,000 views and 350 shares,” Petersen’s campaign said on Facebook. “Now the question is, are they banning Austin because his AR15 drawing was triggering, or because their COO made the maximum donation to Claire McCaskill?”

Good question.

A search of Open Secrets finds that Feinstein has received a total of $11,435 from Facebook in the period spanning 2013 – 2018.  According to the record, $6,000 came from the company’s political action committee while $5,435 came from individuals.

Cruz, on the other hand, has received no contributions from political action committees, according to information provided by Open Secrets.

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Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad
Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad – Source: Author (used with permission)

Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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