As the election draws closer, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced sweeping measures to restrict political content on its platform, but left wing activists joined by Hollywood celebrities believe he didn’t go far enough. Their call for harsher censorship measures against supposed “hate speech” and “misinformation” has led to a #StopHateforProfit campaign who’s followers pledge to freeze their Instagram accounts this Wednesday for 24 hours. Celebrities and influencers have joined the ranks of the pro censorship movement, from Kim Kardashian, to Ashton Kutcher, to Jamie Foxx.
“I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation – created by groups to sow division and split America apart – only to take steps after people are killed,” was posted to Kim Kardashian’s Instagram on Tuesday. Instagram is owned by Facebook’s parent company, Facebook Inc.
Calls for increased social media censorship have intensified since Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential elections, resulting in an alliance between left wing pressure groups, multinational corporations, and now Hollywood celebrities. These groups threaten to use their collective power to throttle social media companies profits unless they implement more draconian censorship measures. Earlier this year, corporations pulled their advertising from Facebook in a campaign coordinated by pressure groups to get Facebook to crack down harder on hate speech.
Social media censorship has often disproportionately targeted conservatives. Last year, Project Veritas uncovered anti conservative and Trump bias by Facebook/Google employees. Social media censorship has drawn the ire of conservative politicians in Washington D.C, from Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif, to Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas. If social media companies censor political content, they could lose their status as neutral platforms and be held liable for libel that is published on their websites.
Conservatives have attempted to counter this censorship by creating a variety of different pro free speech social media platforms, from Parler to Gab, though even these efforts have been frustrated by website hosts such as GoDaddy who have refused to host the sites. Some conservative social media personalities have found success on these alternate platforms.
One such personality is Laura Loomer, who was banned from Twitter and now boasts over 500,000 followers on Parler. Many other prominent conservatives have created accounts on Parler and other alternative social media platforms, including Gab, as a response to perceived censorship.
