Facebook's decision to remove some posts and pages promoting protests against COVID-19 safety measures has led many in the US to call it an infringement on free speech in defiance of earlier pledges of political neutrality
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2020) Facebook's decision to remove some posts and pages promoting protests against COVID-19 safety measures has led many in the US to call it an infringement on free speech in defiance of earlier pledges of political neutrality.
A Facebook spokesperson told Sputnik on Monday that events will be banned on the platform as long as they are banned by the government due to defying social distancing guidelines. So far, the company has only done so in California, New Jersey and Nebraska, initially claiming that it was at the request of their respective governments.
Donald Trump Jr. rushed to describe the move as "very dangerous."
"Why is @Facebook colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech? Regardless of what you think about the lockdowns or the protests against them, this is a chilling & disturbing government directed shutdown of peoples 1st Amendment rights. Very dangerous!" the first son said on Twitter.
Protests have erupted across the United States in recent days in the states of Michigan, Texas, Ohio, California, Maine, Minnesota, Virginia, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, New Jersey and Washington � just as record numbers of US citizens lost their jobs due to the COVID-19-related restrictions.
Facebook's selectivity about which posts to remove has outraged many. People claiming their constitutional right to peaceful assembly spilled their anger all over the social media platform. All the more so when it turned out that state governments had not actually requested that Facebook remove any posts.
Alyana Alfaro Post, a spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, told CNN that the governor's office had been in touch with Facebook about the matter but said that "The governor's office did not ask Facebook to remove pages or posts for events promoting lifting the provisions of the governor's stay-at-home order."
Nebraska governor spokesman Taylor Gage also denied asking Facebook to remove posts about anti-quarantine protests.
"The Nebraska Governor's Office has made no such request," Gage said on Twitter.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly come under fire while trying to maneuver the company's policy between free speech and fake news. On Monday, he tried to outline the edge separating the two in an interview with ABC News.
"It's important that people can debate policy, so there's a line on this. But, you know, more than normal political discourse, I think a lot of the stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation," he said.
Facebook clarified later that the decision to block posts was its own, made after consultations with state governments about their social distancing guidelines, rather than at their request.
The company's general rule is to respect free speech except for cases when it can lead to imminent discrimination, harassment and physical harm. Facebook has even set a special independent board overseeing the eligibility of content. The question is whether the company is going to treat the removal of what Zuckerberg called "harmful misinformation" as its own responsibility.
"Because free speech is now illegal America?" Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said on Twitter after Facebook removed anti-quarantine posts. An opinion echoed by several other fellow Republicans, appears to point out the perceived anti-Trump administration bias in Silicon Valley.
"Given Big Tech's history of bias and censorship, I'm deeply concerned that they and government officials are partnering not to protect public health, but to shut down views with which they disagree," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in a statement on Monday, as quoted by Politico. "Now, more than ever, companies like Facebook should focus on connecting people, not shutting down communities because they hold different views."
While many of the posts promoting anti-quarantine protests on Facebook appear to be organically promoted, media including the Guardian and the Washington Post claimed that among them are those sponsored by far-right and pro-gun political groups.
Photo and video footage from some of the protests show people standing close to one another in a typical protest crowd demanding their jobs back and for the social distancing restrictions to be lifted actions that President Donald Trump himself earlier endorsed.
It is, however, an opinion of the minority most likely, as polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of US citizens as many as 81 percent, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll believe that self-isolation must continue as long as the spread of the infection is ongoing.
