Big Tech after their next scalp?

YouTube video giant PragerU claims Facebook is shadow banning their account or intentionally suppressing their videos from follower news feeds.



According to PragerU, several videos were flagged as “hate speech” by Facebook. Worse still, when followers shared PragerU videos, those videos were being marked as “spam.”

PragerU tweeted screenshots of their analytics showing their videos reaching… no one

FYI, we've been shadowbanned on @facebook since 10 PM last night. Nothing about our content has changed, so what is behind the shadowban all of the sudden? — PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018

BREAKING: We're being heavily censored on @Facebook. Our last 9 posts are reaching 0 of our 3 million followers. At least two videos were deleted last night for “hate speech” including our recent video with @conservmillen. SHARE to spread awareness about big tech censorship! pic.twitter.com/k83HqmlMRc — PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018

So @prageru with its millions of followers and organic reach can’t get more than 20 views on its last 9 posts combined? @facebook must be scared to death of other ideas pic.twitter.com/Og1FJT7uWo — Ben Dierker (@bendierker) August 17, 2018

We're posting on at least an hourly basis. Very curious. https://t.co/5a6P9ikFx1 — PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018

Hate speech? Really?

This is considered "hate" by @Facebook. This message is the opposite of hate.https://t.co/twGYd273fX — PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018

“Spam”

When supporters share our post on the content @facebook censored, Facebook is marking it as "spam". pic.twitter.com/Zc3iiKL1L1 — PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018

Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen a PragerU video in my feed in ages.

PragerU was similarly maligned by YouTube, who they eventually sued.

Professor Jacobson blogged about the Big Tech censorship storm, saying:

There is a war being fought for the turf controlled by the big tech social media oligopolies, and when the openness of these forums is lost, we’re back to the equivalent of Samizdat. …The new censorship is welcomed in big tech as it is on campus. Because the leftist censors get to define the terms.

As I blogged when discussing YouTube’s latest round of climate change fact checking:

Even Slate is concerned about unelected entities regulating speech. “Whatever they do with conspiracy theorists, placing the distribution of information in the hands of a few tech companies will remain a very big problem,” writes Isaac Chotiner. We’re effectively dealing with a free speech crisis wherein the enemy is not (amazingly) the government, but tech behemoths who’ve created the realm where the majority of speech, discussion, and thought is placed and now get to make the rules concerning what thought is allowed and what is too offensive for the public arena. There is no recourse, no appeal process, no justice system, just the court of public opinion. It’s downright terrifying.

Every one watching objectively knew that Alex Jones was just a test case. Unfortunately, that prediction appears to be playing out.



