Moms for Liberty says chapter Facebook groups unfairly censored in letter to Zuckerberg
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Founders of conservative group Moms for Liberty accused Facebook of censoring some of the group's social media pages in an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, co-founders of Moms for Liberty, wrote that 22 of Moms for Liberty’s chapter groups around the nation have had their Facebook pages disabled in recent weeks after receiving notifications of community violations.
"Our groups have been shut down repeatedly," Descovich and Justice wrote in the Monday letter. "Our admin accounts have been suspended and our National Page restricted from posting for 'security reasons.' We have not been provided with any information about what these 'security reasons' might be, leaving us unable to address any concerns. This severely impacts our ability to pursue our core mission of helping American parents organize to participate in the education of their children.
Justice is a former Indian River County School Board member and Descovich is a former Brevard County School Board member. Moms for Liberty has gained national attention for its members’ protests and remarks at school board meetings over topics such as COVID-19 restrictions, critical race theory and LGBTQ issues. The group, founded last January, now has more than 150 chapters in 32 states. Most chapters organize their members primarily via a network of Facebook groups.
In their letter, Justice and Descovich said Meta had bowed to pressure from liberal groups that accuse groups like Moms for Liberty of extremism.
In October, the National Education Association (NEA) – a labor union representing teachers and school support staff – sent an open letter to executives of Facebook, Twitter and TikTok calling on the social media companies to staunch the flow of misinformation and violent rhetoric on their platforms.
The NEA letter warned of “a small but violent group of radicalized adults who falsely believe that graduate level courses about racism are being taught in K-12 public schools” and “another small yet vocal group of extremists who are putting the safety of our children, educators, and families at risk over the notion that wearing a mask is in infringement on personal liberty.”
More: Moms for Liberty sues Brevard School Board, saying speech rules discriminate by view
More: Brevard School Board: training accused of critical race theory has nothing to do with race
Descovich and Justice wrote that Meta “has determined to act as an enforcement agent on (NEA’s) behalf. Facebook has not specified what violations the group pages committed, and one chapter group was taken down the same day it launched, they said. They asked Meta to stop its scrutiny of Moms for Liberty’s group pages.
“Today there are powerful, entrenched, deeply ideological interest groups exerting every pressure they can to use your platform in a way that stacks the deck in favor of particular groups at the expense of everyday citizens,” Descovich and Justice wrote. “We ask that your company apply the same standards to our groups as you apply to others.”
In a statement, Meta said some of Moms for Liberty's Facebook content had been removed by mistake and has been restored.
“Meta doesn’t target any group because of their politics," a Meta spokesperson wrote in a statement. "After reviewing the content associated with this organization, we determined that some was removed correctly for violating our misinformation policies, but we removed some other content by mistake and have restored it.”
Descovich and Justice's letter echoes criticism from Republican politicians about social media company's moderation practices are biased against conservatives.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in May barring social media platforms from banning political candidates from their platforms. The measure followed former President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter and Facebook, though Republican supporters said the bill was unrelated. The legislation enacted fines for companies that “knowingly de-platform” political candidates but was blocked by a federal judge in June.
Bailey Gallion is the education reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallion at 321-242-3786 or bgallion@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Moms for Liberty letter to Facebook CEO accuses site of censoring pages
