This highlights the authoritarianism of Facebook’s speech police. Facebook routinely flags posts that are critical of jihad terror and Sharia oppression as “hate speech”; in February 2017, referrals to Jihad Watch from Facebook dropped by 90% in a single day and have never recovered. The “hate speech” label is a tool of powerful in order to silence the powerless, and the political and media elites have decided that opposition to jihad murder and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others falls into this category. This story, however, shows how absurd this whole enterprise really is.
“Facebook flags Declaration of Independence as hate speech,” by Victor Morton, Washington Times, July 4, 2018 (thanks to Noor):
In the week of America’s Independence Day, the algorithms of Facebook decided that the Declaration of Independence was hate speech.
The Liberty County Vindicator, a community newspaper between Houston and Beaumont, had been posting the whole declaration in small daily chunks for nine days on its Facebook page in the run-up to July 4. But the 10th excerpt was not posted Monday as scheduled, and the paper said it received an automated notice saying the post “goes against our standards on hate speech.”
Part of the standard notice, Vindicator managing editor Casey Stinnett wrote, included a warning that the newspaper could lose its Facebook account, on which it depends for much of its reach, if there were more violations.
The offending passage?
It was part of the document’s “Bill of Particulars” against Britain’s King George III: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
Mr. Stinnett dryly replied in an article about the rejection, “Perhaps had Thomas Jefferson written it as ‘Native Americans at a challenging stage of cultural development’ that would have been better. Unfortunately, Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans.”
He noted that the newspaper wanted “a means of contacting Facebook for an explanation or a opportunity to appeal the post’s removal, but it does not appear the folks at Facebook want anyone contacting them. Or, at least, they do not make it easy.”
Within a day, Facebook had paid heed, allowing the posting and sending the Vindicator an apology.
“It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our Community Standards. We want to apologize and let you know that we’ve restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action,” Facebook wrote back, the Vindicator reported….