fbpx

A draconian update to Facebook’s Community Standards effectively allows for detractors of banned Conservative media personalities to issue death threats against those classified by Facebook as “dangerous individuals”.

According to Facebook’s recently-updated policy on “violence and incitement”, death threats and incitement of violence are banned across the platform, unless your death threat is aimed at someone the social media company has labeled an acceptable “target”. Yes, really, they used the word target as if it’s some sort of bounty…

Here’s Facebook’s new policy:

Do not post:

Threats that could lead to death (and other forms of high-severity violence) of any target(s), where threat is defined as any of the following:

  •  Statements of intent to commit high-severity violence
  • Calls for high-severity violence (unless the target is an organisation or individual covered in the Dangerous Individuals and Organisations Policy)
  • Including content where no target is specified but a symbol represents the target and/or includes a visual of an armament to represent violence
  • Statements advocating for high-severity violence (unless the target is an organisation or individual covered in the Dangerous Individuals and Organisations Policy)
  • Aspirational or conditional statements to commit high-severity violence (unless the target is an organisation or individual covered in the Dangerous Individuals and Organisations Policy)

As Facebook stated on May 2, 2019, their list of “dangerous individuals” includes InfoWars host Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, conservative activist Laura Loomer, Louis Farrakhan, and Milo Yiannopoulos.

Following her ban from Facebook and Instagram on May 2, 2019 Loomer became the “most banned woman in the world”. Loomer was permanently banned by Twitter on November 21, 2019 after posting a tweet in which she referred to Rep. Ilhan Omar as “anti Jewish”, a statement which is entirely factual.

In January 2019, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that Loomer’s ban came at the instigation of CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), a designated Islamic terrorist organization, and was carried out shortly after CAIR’s meeting with Twitter and Facebook executives.

Loomer has received numerous death threats from Islamic individuals, and is currently being targeted by CAIR, which is HAMAS, a terrorist organization that kills Jews.

Is Facebook giving the green light to Islamic terrorists on their platform to openly call for Loomer, who is Jewish, to be attacked or murdered?

It certainly looks like it!

It is worth noting that Facebook’s update to their Community Standards in which they sanctioned violence against Loomer and other “dangerous individuals” occurred hours after Loomer filed her lawsuit against Facebook for defamation.

Facebook is no longer acting above the law. They are acting above the government and are endangering the lives of those they consider political dissidents.

Mr. Watson himself published a piece on Summit News showing his response to a direct death threat from a rather typical representative of the “Religion of Peace”, stating that he would “f*cking find and kill” Mr. Watson. A death threat that is as clear as anything could be. In response to this, Facebook’s Community Guidelines found that this had NOT violated their Community Standards. In response, Watson sent out an appropriate Tweet stating that, ” Direct death threats don’t violate Facebook’s “community standards,” yet people are routinely banned for expressing opinions. Incredible.”.

In fact, Watson himself states in his article that an act was passed in the United Kingdom called the Malicious Communications Act 1988 . In that Act, it is stated in Section 1 that: Any person who sends to another person—(a)a letter, electronic communication or article of any description] which conveys—(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive; (ii)a threat; or (iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender” has committed an offense. Of all the unsettling issues spelled out here, the most unsettling may be the sudden realization that although the U.K has this act, citizens of the UK do not have the wonderful First Amendment to protect their speech. In a perversely ironic twist, fellow Americans who do (or at least should) be protected under the First Amendment now have to worry about death threats with no recourse.

In a heroic response to this disturbingly frequent pattern of Conservative prejudice from Big Tech, Laura Loomer has taken legal action against several of the social media companies that have banned her.

Deplatforming Conservatives is nothing new, but the frequency of widespread Left-wing bias by Big Tech make Loomer’s lawsuits against Twitter, CAIR, and Facebook all the more important. Additionally, on Tuesday, Loomer announced a lawsuit against Facebook for defamation. This lawsuit, which calls for $3 BILLION in punitive damages, states that Facebook has defamed Laura by classifying her as a “dangerous individual”.

A press release published by Loomer’s attorney stated:

“This characterization of Ms. Loomer, published widely, is alleged to have severely damaged her reputation, good will and financial well-being, as well as endangered her life and caused her to have to travel with security. As Facebook is reportedly worth over $63 billion the alleged compensatory and punitive damages are sought for at least over $3 billion U.S. dollars, which is 5% of its net worth — the standard calculation for punitive damages. The reason punitive damages are assessed by a jury is to punish the offender to dissuade further illegal conduct.”

Loomer’s lawsuit could prove to be a landmark case in the ongoing fight for the right to speak and voice one’s opinion in the digital public square. The right to voice a dissenting opinion is one that must be protected and hopefully this lawsuit will further that proposition, as well as let big tech know that there will be legal punishments if they maliciously defame users.

There will undoubtedly be a portion of the American populous with perceptions that were molded by tyrants who will dig their feet in and say that there is no such bias occurring. Many of the political left have gone as far as calling social media bias and censorship a “right wing conspiracy theory”. However, the evidence is undeniable, and as displayed by Facebook’s most recent Community Standard update, which literally normalizes death threats against perceived “dangerous individuals”, Loomer, as well as others who file lawsuits against the social media giants may be on their way to setting legal precedent and may perhaps be the recipient of much deserved legal settlements.

This is a developing story.

Read more about Loomer’s lawsuit against Facebook here.

Read more about Loomer’s lawsuit against Twitter and CAIR here.

Support Loomer’s legal defense fund at FreeLoomer.com.

Josh Cohen