PolitiFiction: PolitiFact Blames Pamela Geller for Widely-Reported Story About Facebook Banning the Declaration of Independence

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PolitiFact’s Bill McCarthy makes himself ridiculous in the sixth paragraph of his story: “The Geller Report cited an article from the Guardian, and Geller pointed in an email to multiple other outlets that also reported on the incident, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Fortune and the Independent.”

Yet he makes me and the Geller Report the focus of his story. Why? I didn’t originate this story. Are the left’s “fact-checkers” so afraid of me and those who support me in fighting for freedom that are desperate to find anything, anything, they can use to defame and discredit me?

McCarthy faults me for not noting that Facebook reversed itself and apologized. Yet this did happen. What I reported is 100% true. I didn’t post the follow up? That doesn’t make the story untrue or half true. The salient portion of this incident is that Facebook would dare to ban the Declaration of Independence, not that they reversed themselves when discovered and subjected to all the ridicule they deserved for doing this. What I said in that post is absolutely true: “The left hates our freedoms, and so designating the Declaration of Independence, the most magnificent document in all of human history, as hate speech is in line with their agenda. The left means to criminalize lawfulness. The left means to criminalize freedom of speech. The left means to criminalize individual rights. The left means to criminalize Americanism.” If Facebook encountered a bump in the road in this particular initiative doesn’t mean that the overall effort isn’t happening.

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Further — how many times has the media reported something wrong and never did a followup?

“Did Facebook remove, censor the Declaration of Independence?,” by Bill McCarthy, PolitiFact, July 10, 2018:

In the lead-up to the Fourth of July holiday, Facebook removed a post containing sections of the Declaration of Independence as hate speech. Stories detailing the incident have been gaining traction ever since, so we decided to examine what happened.

“Facebook removes, censors Declaration of Independence as ‘hate speech,’” said a July 5, 2018, headline from Geller Report, a website run by Pamela Geller, an anti-Muslim activist and commentator.

“It’s not surprising,” the story said. “The left hates our freedoms, and so designating the Declaration of Independence, the most magnificent document in all of human history, as hate speech is in line with their agenda. The left means to criminalize lawfulness. The left means to criminalize freedom of speech. The left means to criminalize individual rights. The left means to criminalize Americanism.”

What the story does not tell you: Facebook said removing the post was an accident and restored it a day later.

Facebook users flagged this story as part of the company’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The Geller Report cited an article from the Guardian, and Geller pointed in an email to multiple other outlets that also reported on the incident, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Fortune and the Independent.

Here’s what happened: In anticipation of July 4, the Liberty County Vindicator, a small local newspaper in Texas, posted sections of the Declaration of Independence to Facebook.

The Vindicator soon received notice from Facebook indicating that one of the posts was removed because it “goes against our standards on hate speech,” according to a July 2 write-up from Casey Stinnett, the paper’s managing editor. Stinnett said the section was likely removed for its reference to “merciless Indian savages.”

“The removal of the post was an automated action,” Stinnett wrote. “If any human being working at Facebook were to review it, no doubt the post would be allowed.”

Later, Stinnett updated the article and posted to Facebook to announce that the post had been restored. He said the Vindicator received an email from Facebook that said, “It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our Community Standards. We want to apologize and let you know that we’ve restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action.”

Geller acknowledged in her email that Facebook apologized and restored the post, but her story did not mention the apology or the fix.

“We restored the post and apologized to The Vindicator on July 3 as soon as we saw our error,” said Sarah Pollack, a spokesperson for Facebook. “We process millions of reports every week, and sometimes we make mistakes.”

This is not the first time Facebook’s censors have removed posts of historical significance. In 2016, Facebook suspended one user’s account after he posted an image of The Terror War, a Pulitzer-prize-winning photograph that depicts a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. The photo, removed as nudity and child porn, was eventually restored.

Our ruling

The Geller Report story had a point that a newspaper’s post of the Declaration of Independence was temporarily removed from Facebook for appearing to violate “hate speech” standards. But the website did not mention that Facebook said it was a mistake and restored the post. It did not censor the entire speech.

We rate this statement Half True.

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Suresh
Suresh
5 years ago

Not surprising.

facebook, twitter , even Google joins lslamofascist gang to support illegals and jihadis
suppress conservative free speech http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs

saudi/qatar/OIC own part of twitter, Fox Network, fund CNN, MSNBC , buy out politicians , bureaucrats in education dept to push islam in schools/ colleges. Easiest way to brainwash and takeover country and shutdown free speech !

Mahou Shoujo
Mahou Shoujo
5 years ago

face book is a tool of islam, which mean it follows the obligation of muslims to lie.In accordance with the islamic statutory descriptions of muslim lies,• Taqiyya (Shia) or Muda’rat (Sunni): tactical deceit for the purposes of spreading Islam.
• Kitman: deceit by omission.
• Tawriya: deceit by ambiguity.
• Taysir: deceit through facilitation (not having to observe all the tenets of Sharia).
• Darura: deceit through necessity (to engage in something “Haram” or forbidden).
• Muruna: the temporary suspension of Sharia in order that Muslim immigrants appear “moderate”.
These islamic standards are face book’s style book.

Major Tom
Major Tom
5 years ago

It must really suck for Facebook to have to do an About Face!

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
5 years ago

Most of these sites seem to have a very strong bent towards the left.

Thomas Faddis
Thomas Faddis
5 years ago

So it’s politifuct.

Reverend Bacon
Reverend Bacon
5 years ago

The facts seem undisputed: they have an algorithm which flagged the Declaration of Independence as “hate speech.” Then, they “fixed” it by making an exception for the Declaration of Independence. But another document with the same ideas and language would also be flagged.

What is NOT undisputed is whether or not that’s a good thing. They think it is.

Merchantseamen
Merchantseamen
5 years ago

i have been trying to get thrown off fakebook and can’t. I don ‘t know what I am doing wrong. I want to wear it like a badge.

created4el
created4el
5 years ago

Facebook bans the Declaration of Independence… Facebook also bans speech from conservative groups… accidental coincidence that these are both tagged as hate speech? Hmmm…

I wonder if, now that facebook “fixed” its algorithm, if you paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, would that get flagged? My guess is that it would because they probably added a check to see if the flagged text is part of the Declaration of Independence so they don’t look so blatantly un-American… a paraphrased Declaration won’t match the Declaration of Independence so the text will still probably flag as the “hate speech” that it is.

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