The tech tyrants over at Facebook flagged the Declaration of Independence as “hate speech” this week.
The Vindicator, a community newspaper in Texas, was posting the Declaration of Independence in chunks, post by post this week to celebrate America’s 242nd year of independence from the British Crown when Facebook’s algorithms flagged it as ‘hate speech.’
Facebook subsequently apologized for the ‘error’ and allowed the newspaper to publish the Declaration of Independence in its entirety.
Facebook, Google, Twitter and YouTube are at war with conservatives.
Per the newspaper:
Somewhere in paragraphs 27-31 of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson wrote something that Facebook finds offensive.
Leading up to Independence Day, The Vindicator challenged its Facebook followers to read the Declaration of Independence. To make it a little easier to digest that short but formidable historic document, the newspaper broke the Declaration down into 12 small bites and one to post each morning from June 24 to July 4.
The first nine parts posted as scheduled, but part 10, consisting of paragraphs 27-31 of the Declaration, did not appear. Instead, The Vindicator received a notice from Facebook saying that the post “goes against our standards on hate speech.”
Facebook’s notice then asked The Vindicator to review the contents of its page and remove anything that does not comply with Facebook’s policies.
The offending passage of the Declaration reads as follows:
“He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
“He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
“He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
“He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
While The Vindicator cannot be certain exactly what triggered Facebook’s filtering program, the editor suspects it was most likely the phrase “Indian Savages.”
The Vindicator says there was no option for them to appeal Facebook’s decision and they were issued a warning they may lose their entire Facebook page over their hateful post.
Facebook reached out to The Vindicator after the paper made a fuss about it.
Imagine that, Facebook deems Thomas Jefferson’s words as “hate speech.”
If Facebook were around during the founding of this great country, they would have censored our Founding Fathers as they were drafting the documents to free us from tyranny.
That’s all you need to know about the state of tech tyranny today.
