Facebook Moderator Boasts Deleting Users For MAGA Hat

Project Veritas released parts of its investigation of Facebook and claims that content moderators for the social media company removed posts supportive of President Donald Trump, in violation of Facebook’s own policies.

Project Veritas is a conservative nonprofit that is controversial for embedding undercover operatives to investigate organizations. Its recordings show Facebook moderators bragged about removing conservative content that did not violate the company’s policies, while leaving in place liberal comments that did violate them.

Project Veritas’ press release stated, in part:

“One of the content moderators was asked if she deleted every Republican item that came up on her queue, she said: ‘Yes! I don’t give no ****s, I’ll delete it.’

The same moderator said she does not take down anti-Trump content, even if it did not [sic] violate company policy.

‘You gotta take it down but I leave it up,’ she said. ‘If you see something that’s not supposed to be up, it’s probably me.’

Another content moderator, Lara Kontakos, was asked what she did when she saw a posts supporting the president: ‘If someone is wearing a MAGA hat, I am going to delete them for terrorism.’

Then, Kontakos looked around at her colleagues: ‘I think we are all doing that.’”

In April, Facebook removed a page for an event that a conservative group had organized to protest Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home executive orders.

It was taken down for not complying the government’s guidance on social distancing, according to MLive.

In 2018, Facebook rejected an ad from Michigan political candidate Aric Nesbitt. The advertisement announced Nesbitt's candidacy for the state senate.

According to a Detroit News article, the ad was rejected for containing “shocking, disrespectful or sensational content, including ads that depict violence or threats of violence.”

At a hearing of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, a member of the Michigan delegation asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg if his company was censoring political views.

“Can you assure me that ads and content are not being denied based on particular views?” asked Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton.

“Yes, politically,” Zuckerberg said, according to The Detroit News. “Although when I hear that, I hear normal, political speech. We certainly are not going to allow ads for terrorist content, for example. So we’d be banning those views.”