Man Accuses Facebook Of Censoring Harmless Religious Post

Facebook is often blamed by people of all political and religious beliefs for censoring content and violating their free speech. The latest such accusation arrived this week when conservative columnist Billy Hallowell said that Facebook took down a post that simply said “Jesus died so you could live.” According to Hallowell, the social media giant said this innocuous post violated the company’s Community Standards on hate speech.

“The entire ordeal was surreal and, frankly, disturbing,” Hallowell said. “As an advocated of free speech and religious freedom, the idea that a message as innocuous as ‘Jesus died so you could live’ would be censored or banned is patently bizarre.”

Hallowell also said that he appealed the decision to Facebook. However, instead of reversing the decision, the company instead took down the post altogether. And when he tried to contact Facebook again, the company never got back to him.

“I made it a point to contact the Facebook press office as well as directly messaging a staff member — but to no avail. Thus far, no one has replied,” Hallowell said.

It’s far from unusual for Facebook to go too far in its content moderation decisions. However, the company is equally blamed for not doing enough to crack down on offensive content, so it truly can’t win.




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