• Media Matters for America recently released a study that found Facebook didn’t stifle conservative pages, but experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the study didn’t adequately examine censorship. said he could not be trusted.
• The study concluded that generally conservative Facebook pages had the highest total interactions, but experts said that wasn’t indicative of a lack of censorship.
• “Media Matters wants to weaponize powerful institutions to censor conservatives… Censorship does not exist on Big Tech platforms because they are actively trying to encourage corporations to increase censorship.” It’s just pretending,” John Schwepp, policy director for the American Principles Project, told DCNF.

Media Matters for America recently published a study concluding that Facebook does not censor conservatives, but experts told the DCNF that the study could not be trusted because it did not adequately measure suppression of right-leaning pages. said.

Right-leaning Facebook pages typically have more total interactions on Facebook than politically agnostic left-leaning pages, according to to the study. But experts say the only example of repression cited by the Media Matters survey is Donald Trump’s Facebook ban, which does not mean there was no censorship of right-wing Facebook pages. It has said.

The lack of censorship measurement in this study is “quite laughable,” John Schwepp, policy director for the American Principles Project, told DCNF. “Media Matters wants to weaponize powerful institutions to censor conservatives… Censorship does not exist on Big Tech platforms because they are actively trying to encourage corporations to increase censorship.” I’m just pretending.”

The Media Matters survey ran from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022 and found that while right-leaning Facebook pages received the most total interactions in 2020 and 2021, in 2022 they were the It turned out that the Alliance page earned 2% more. According to the study, even in 2022, “right-leaning pages received more than three times as many interactions per post.”

“Media Matters’ fake censorship study is not really a study about censorship,” Mike Benz, executive director of the Freedom Online Foundation, told DCNF. “We do not include data on censored accounts, censored stories, censored groups, censored pages, censored hashtags, etc. We only study success — in social media platforms.” Relative popularity of right-wing pages versus left-wing pages[s]” (Related article: “Keep the Nazis out”: CNN guest Jake Tupper says Facebook should ramp up censorship ahead of 2024 election)

ABC, CNN and People made the top 10 list of total interactions on Facebook, but Media Matters said they were “discordant” in their research. Occupy and The Other 98% also made the Top 10 list, but they were the only ones described as “leftist” on the list.

Benz added that although right-leaning pages are popular, they “would be even more popular if they weren’t subject to massive, thorough, and systematic censorship.” He added that even if all the facts presented by Media Matters were accurate, the study “fails to provide evidence that conservatives are not subject to censorship.”

He said the reason Media Matters didn’t mention censorship data in the study was that “it would show that conservative accounts are grossly disproportionate targets for censorship.” Media Matters is simply maddened that conservatives still enjoy relative success despite such censorship. And they simply called what they were upset about research. “

The suppression of conservatives on Facebook is due to rule-breaking, the study says. “What some right-wingers accuse of censorship is mostly just private companies enforcing community guidelines that users agree to when joining these platforms.”

Benz specifically responded to this statement as follows. It’s just a community guideline, containing offensive language terms rigged against conservatives. “

He added that Facebook has manipulated these guidelines to censor conservatives on issues such as immigration, climate, abortion, guns, LGBT and democracy.

Media Matters pressured Twitter to censor the term “groomers,” and the social media platform bowed to the pressure, according to screenshots Lindsay shared with the DCNF. It suspended political commentator James Lindsey in July for calling the term on

“It’s not surprising that Media Matters, an organization dedicated to pressuring companies to silence conservative voices, conveniently produced it. [a] It’s a study that denies the existence of conservative censorship on Facebook,” Jake Denton, a researcher at the Heritage Foundation Center for Technology Policy, told DCNF. “Their deeply flawed research is incredibly misleading and fails to capture the reality of censorship in social media… No one should take the findings of this report seriously. “

Groups such as Media Matters are also pressuring Facebook to censor campaign ads by the American Principles Project that suggest that President Joe Biden is endorsing men participating in women’s sports in 2020. I put it on. The effort was successful in getting Facebook to remove the ads, according to to Media Matters.

“The fact that a small number of conservative news sources happen to have a lot of traffic on Facebook does not speak to the company’s history of censorship,” Schweppe told DCNF. “Facebook has made it impossible for us to reach thousands of voters with our election campaign messages.”

Media Matters and Facebook did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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