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The Daily Signal reports on META and Facebook news with analysis and commentary on social media regulation, censorship, and political influence online.
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news
Facebook Is Keeping Trump Off Its Platform
Facebook’s oversight board upheld the company’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump Wednesday morning. “The Board found that, in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Mr. Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible,” the board said in a statement. It also found, however, that… -
news
6 Takeaways as Facebook, Twitter CEOs Testify at Senate Hearing
The CEOs of Twitter and Facebook returned Tuesday to Capitol Hill, this time to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. While focused on Twitter’s blocking of a New York Post story about the Biden family’s business dealings overseas and the social media giants’ immunity from lawsuit under the Communications Decency Act, the hearing veered into… -
news
Facebook Says Ban on Conversion Therapy to Strike ‘Right Balance’ on Speech, Safety
In response to activists, Instagram and parent company Facebook plan to ban information about “conversion therapy” available for gays and lesbians—but haven’t fully defined the term. In yet another debate over free speech on social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook may end up picking winners and losers in a hotly debated topic. A Facebook representative… -
opinion
What Does Facebook’s New Oversight Board Mean for Conservative Posts?
Facebook recently announced the first 20 members of its new oversight board. The role of the board is to guide Facebook through decisions on what controversial content should be allowed to stay up or be deleted. Michael McConnell, professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and a co-chair of Facebook’s… -
news
9th Circuit Rules Facebook, YouTube Not Bound by First Amendment
Facebook, YouTube, and other big tech companies are not bound to abide by the First Amendment of the Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to conservatives online. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in a case brought by Prager University, a nonprofit that produces videos promoting… -
opinion
Facebook Isn’t Broken. Government Shouldn’t ‘Fix’ It.
In a divided Washington, hating Facebook has brought the left and right together. It’s a dangerous collaboration. But when you take a closer look at the complaints lodged by each side, you see how thin their arguments really are. Most of the left-wing criticism of Facebook amounts to criticisms of human nature. People lie. People… -
news
Facebook Announces Effort to Clearly Mark Fake News
Facebook announced Monday an effort to “protect the 2020 U.S. elections” by clearly marking fake news posts, offering protections to politicians’ accounts and offering more transparency. The effort comes after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg defended the social media site’s new advertisement policies, which will effectively allow political campaigns to release misinformation to voters, in an… -
opinion
What Changed Eric Metaxas’ Mind About Trump
Conservative Christians have been a core constituency for President Donald Trump, and one of the more visible Christians supporting the president is bestselling author and radio host Eric Metaxas. Our Editor-in-Chief Kate Trinko recently got to sit down with Metaxas to discuss why he supports the president, as well as his latest book. Today, we’ll… -
opinion
ICE-Hating Groups Used Facebook to Incite Violence
Abolish ICE thugs in Colorado want to see the homes and families of immigration enforcement officials set aflame. Denver communists want alien detention facility employees dead, swinging from nooses with broken necks. Both groups are brazenly using Facebook to spread their inflammatory and violent messages. So, where is Silicon Valley—whose top companies partner with the… -
opinion
Exclusive: Jon Kyl Spoke to 133 Conservatives About Facebook Bias. He Reveals the Findings and Rebuts His Critics.
Last year, Facebook hired former Sen. Jon Kyl, senior counsel at the firm Covington & Burling, to investigate allegations of anti-conservative bias at the social media company. In his first interview since its release, Kyl tells The Daily Signal what he discovered and how Facebook should move forward. He also responds to criticism of the… -
news
Conservatives ‘Lost Trust’ in Facebook, Independent Report Finds
Facebook has a long way to go in reclaiming the trust of conservatives, according to an interim report on the social media giant’s liberal bias overseen by a former U.S. senator. “Many conservatives lost trust in Facebook, believing it discriminated against them,” former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote in a Tuesday op-ed for The Wall… -
news
Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Makes a Huge Political Donation to Planned Parenthood
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is donating $1 million to the political arm of Planned Parenthood as the company wrestles with claims of a conservative bias. “I think this is a very urgent moment where the rights and the choices and the basic health of the most vulnerable women—the women who have been marginalized,… -
opinion
Facebook Streaming, Location Made New Zealand Attack Unusual Act of Terrorism
Listen to our interview with The Heritage Foundation’s Robin Simcox in the podcast, or read the lightly edited transcript below. Kate Trinko: I’m here with Robin Simcox, the Margaret Thatcher fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Robin focuses here on research, on terrorism, and national security. Thanks for joining us today, Robin. Robin Simcox: Great to… -
opinion
Senate Should Keep Pedal to the Metal on Judicial Nominees This Week
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday will hold its fourth judicial confirmation hearing of the 116th Congress, this one featuring two nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. This hopefully signals that the new chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will continue a robust pace for hearings on President Donald Trump’s judicial… -
news
Democrat Senator Calls for Investigation Into Liberals’ Facebook Tricks During Senate Race
Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones asked the Federal Election Commission Wednesday night to investigate a false flag operation that was designed to suppress conservative votes ahead of the midterm election. Jones made his request less than a month after reports from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Daily Caller News Foundation fleshed out the extent of… -
news
Facebook Says It Has Identified a Political Influence Campaign Aimed at Creating Left-Wing ‘Resistance’
Facebook announced Tuesday that it has removed 32 inauthentic Instagram and Facebook profiles and pages because the company believes they were part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. “We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation and don’t have all the facts—including who may be behind this. But we are sharing what we know… -
opinion
Facebook Recently Banned Dozens of Accounts in Brazil, and Conservatives Are Crying Foul
Conservative groups in Brazil are protesting against Facebook after it banned 196 pages and 87 individual profiles, many of them on the right side of the ideological spectrum. The Facebook purge has raised concerns that the platform may be pursuing a political agenda in the run-up to the Oct. 7 elections for a new president,… -
news
Facebook Removes Death Threats Toward Republicans After Lawmaker Calls It Out
Facebook removed a page Tuesday that posted incitements to violence and implied death threats after a Republican lawmaker called the company out. During a hearing Tuesday with representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida asked Facebook’s head of global policy management, Monika Bickert, why the social media giant hasn’t removed… -
opinion
The Zuckerberg Hearings Prove Government Shouldn’t Regulate Facebook
In the year 2018, at the height of the Russia Scare, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was hauled in front of a tribunal of tech-illiterate politicians and asked to explain himself. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” Zuckerberg told senators who are upset about the company’s exploitation (and fumbling) of user data—which, unbeknownst to them,… -
opinion
Podcast: What Facebook Does With Your Data
With over 2 billion users, Facebook is a roaring enterprise—but that success has not come without scrutiny. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress this week and faced tough questions over his company’s handling of user data as well as its censorship practices. Klon Kitchen, a Heritage Foundation technology expert, joins the podcast…