Another alleged "error" came back to bite Facebook after it censored a Republican senator's post about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs.
Controversy has surrounded talk of an alleged list of famous people who were involved in Epstein’s child sex trafficking operation, and it appears Facebook is attempting to suppress that controversy, according to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). “Facebook is trying to silence me and stop me from speaking out about Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific sex trafficking ring,” Blackburn accused in a Nov. 25 X post. 
Blackburn had slammed the social media giant for seemingly covering up for Epstein. “Meta, Big Tech, and the media have been trying to cover up his alleged abuses for years, and they’ll even go as far as censoring United States senators who want to bring transparency for the American people,” Blackburn stated in an X post.
Her X post included screenshots of her original Facebook post on Nov. 15 and the removal notifications Facebook sent her. “Share if you want President Trump to make Epstein’s flight logs public,” Blackburn’s censored Facebook post read.
Facebook asserted the post “may show content that is broadly disliked,” and “may go against our guidelines on suggested content,” potentially qualifying as “Clickbait.” Based on the screenshots, Facebook claimed the censorship would prevent the post from being suggested to other users, reduce the distribution of Blackburn’s page and make her page less “recommendable.”
Upon inquiry from MRC, a Facebook spokesman simply relayed the comments of Meta spokesman Andy Stone. “Senator, this notice was unfortunately sent to you in error and we sincerely apologize for the mistake,” Stone posted on X. He claimed, “We have a policy of not recommending so-called ‘engagement bait’ content which uses likes, shares and comments in order to artificially boost engagement. But there's an exception for when elected officials are seeking input from constituents, which you were clearly doing.”
Blackburn is not the first person censored for discussing Epstein’s potential clients.
Meta’s Instagram fact-checked music artist Shawn J. Da Great last May for posting a video claiming Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited Epstein’s island 37 times. “Let’s not forget how many times bill gates [sic] went to that island.. that story that’s coming out is trying to save his A** but I’ll keep applying pressure so he can get what he deserves,” the video caption read. In 2021, Twitter also suspended the Maxwell Trial Account that tracked the trial of Epstein’s accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. That same year, Instagram flagged a post from commentator Liz Wheeler about Maxwell.
MRC Assistant Editor Gabriela Pariseau contributed to this report.
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