Facebook gives conservative user 30-day ban for posting nothing

Joe NewbyJuly 22, 2016

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Facebook ban BBC journos journalists child

I’ve written time and again about the abuse Facebook metes out to conservative users, but this is one of those instances that really takes the cake. On Thursday, Jeanette Runyon, a reader of this site who is regularly targeted by liberal trolls online, informed me that she was given a 30-day ban by Facebook for posting — get this — nothing.

Literally.

She backed that claim up with screenshots of the ban.

Notice, if you will, that there’s absolutely nothing in the area where one would see a post — not a comment, not a graphic or a link — nothing. Runyon also says she has no idea what prompted this.

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

Yes

Regardless, moderators apparently though it was enough to prompt Facebook — now known as the world’s most dangerous censor — to punish her:

I’m told she wasn’t given an opportunity to appeal this, but even if she were, chances are it would get ignored.

It’s not the first time Runyon has been slapped by Facebook. In August 2015, for example, she was slapped for a graphic promoting traditional marriage.

The problem is a section of the Communications Decency Act which lets social media sites censor speech — even that protected by the Constitution — for any reason or no reason at all, with zero consequences.

That section of the law is now the subject of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

Incidents like this, by the way, are the reason Adina Kutnicki, an investigative journalist based in Israel (whose work is proudly featured here, by the way), and I have written “Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad.” That book is set to be available sometime this fall.