Pastor Ken Peters of Covenant Church in Spokane, Washington, was suspended for three days by Facebook for the following post:
“The LGBTQ supporting Iran is like chickens supporting KFC” — suggested those in the LGBTQ community are “less than human.”
He later tweeted to followers his response to the decision.
Facebook said I was making the LGBTQ less than human with this post:
“The LGBTQ supporting Iran, is like chickens supporting KFC.”
They banned me for three days!
They obviously didn’t get the point.#LeftistCensorship
— Pastor Ken Peters – TCAPP (@PastorKenTCAPP) January 10, 2020
“Facebook said I was making the LGBTQ less than human with this post: “The LGBTQ supporting Iran, is like chickens supporting KFC.” They banned me for three days! They didn’t get the point.”
“My post was in no way hateful,” Peters explained in a statement to TheBlaze. “I was making the point that totalitarian Muslims in Iran persecute and execute LGBTQ people. On the other hand, freedom-loving Christians in America disagree with their immorality but would never hurt them.”
He added: “It is strange and ironic that the LGBTQ community would take the side of those who would murder them if they could.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a U.S. Senate committee April 10 he is “committed to making sure that Facebook is a platform for all ideas.” Screen capture from C-SPAN
Conservative accusations against Facebook bias have been under scrutiny. The social media behemoth recused itself of censorship of anti-conservative bias after a Washington D.C. law firm found no evidence in August 2019. “There is the room for unconscious bias that we do not recognize,” Facebook responded in a statement.
However, the findings were a complete whitewash said Justin Danhof, Esq., the Director of the Free Enterprise Project, a program part of the National Center for Public Policy. His organization concentrates on “shareholder activism and the confluence of big government and big business.”
Over 20 Conservative leaders, including Danhof, released a statement repudiating Facebook’s response to the specific examples of anti-conservatism raised in the report.
“Facebook has listened to the conservative movement’s complaints and, in response, has invited us to pound sand. It’s insulting but unsurprising. Unfortunately, this is how Facebook routinely responds to criticism. No conservative leader or organization should accept this as a legitimate response to the undeniable issues we have raised. This is purely another superficial attempt by Facebook to satisfy conservatives with empty promises.”
Danhof confronted Zuckerberg to his face during one meeting. “You could see he was getting very agitated with my questions because I kept rattling off more instances. They clearly thought they put this issue behind them. He got upset — stood up to answer my question and Sheryl grabbed his arm and told him to sit down, which also showed me the power and dynamic in the room. They had some low-level lackey lawyer give me no answers.”
Conservatives aren’t alone, however.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) shared that she is ending her relationship with Facebook after campaign advertisements were removed. “Curious why I think FB has too much power? Let’s start with their ability to shut down debate over whether FB has too much power. Thanks for restoring my posts. But I want a social media marketplace that isn’t dominated by a single censor,” she tweeted in March 2019.
Corine Gatti-Santillo has spent two decades as an editor, investigative reporter and web content strategist; her work has appeared in The Christian Post, LifeZette and CBN, among other outlets. She is host of the program “Mom on the Right” on The Liberty Beacon TV. She and her husband, Rocky, live in Virginia with their infant daughter and yellow lab Maggie.