Conservatives have long pointed out Facebook’s leftist bias, but now, the American Principles Project (APP) is calling the social media platform to the mat for its censorious behavior.
APP filed a complaint Tuesday with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), claiming that, by censoring an ad from APP’s Political Action Committee, Facebook “materially contributed” to the campaigns of former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI).
The ad in question “attacked Gary Peters and Joe Biden for their support for the Equality Act, which would destroy women’s sports if it were passed into law,” according to a press release from APP. Politifact later fact-checked the video, however, and Facebook claimed, according to APP, that the video was “missing context.” The ad was then disallowed from running on Facebook.
The complaint alleged that the “massive restriction by Facebook of the ad’s Facebook user reach was not on the basis that the advertisement contained ‘false’ or ‘misleading information.”
APP’s complaint juxtaposed its ad that was censored with another ad from the anti-Trump Lincoln project, which APP accused of “attributing causation of COVID deaths to the President.” According to the complaint, Facebook left the Lincoln Project’s ad “untouched and unhindered.”
APP did not only accuse Facebook of inconsistent standards. The complaint further stated: “Accordingly, when Facebook blocked the APP PAC ad, it was unable to reach the additional 388,608 voters in Michigan with that particular message. The necessary corollary is that the campaign of U.S Senator Gary Peters was gifted the financial value of the APP PAC ad that would have reached those remaining 388,608 voter[s] with the contra-Peters ad, but never did because of Facebook’s actions; thus, at $0.11 per voter contact x 388,608 voters not reached, this amounts to a $47,746.88 in-kind contribution through Facebook services to the campaign of Democrat Gary Peters.”
This contribution, according to APP’s complaint, constituted an “unlawful and substantial ‘in-kind’ donation to the Democratic Party and to Democrat[ic] candidate Gary Peters under FEC rules as interpreted by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.”
With tensions still running high from the election and the future of the nation still uncertain, conservatives are left to hope that the FEC will remedy the situation.
The American Principles Project is a member of the Free Speech Alliance, an affiliate of MRC.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
