Social media bans are a tricky business.
On the one hand, private companies have every right to watch their platforms for abusive and illegal behavior. But on the other hand, for groups such as Twitter and Facebook, which host millions of users, it seems like it would be impossible to enforce anti-abuse guidelines with any sort of consistency. Some harmful behavior is bound to slip through where it would normally be caught and rectified. This is the biggest problem for companies that claim to stand against all forms of “hate.”
There is another issue, however, concerning the uniformity of Facebook’s and Twitter’s approach to curbing abuse: Silicon Valley is infamously left-wing, and the rules, which are already vague, are being enforced almost exclusively against right-wing activists. Left-wing agitators are left mostly untouched by both companies’ otherwise vigilant moderators.
Consider, for example, Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims. His Facebook and Twitter accounts are both live, despite his recent attempts on both platforms to “doxx” pro-life women (including teenagers) because they prayed in protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia.
Sims shared a video on Twitter this weekend showing him stalking an elderly pro-life woman whom he berates repeatedly for being “old” and “white.” That video, which is still available on Twitter, also features him telling his audience, “Let’s go protest out in front of her house and tell her what’s right for her body.” His second video, which he shared initially on Facebook (it is no longer available), shows him harassing three teenage pro-life girls, aged 13, 15, and 15, and encouraging his viewers to publish their identities and personal information online.
“What we’ve got here is a bunch of … pseudo-Christian protesters who’ve been out here shaming young girls for being here,” Sims said in his second video. “I’ve got $100 to anybody who will identify these three, and I will donate to Planned Parenthood.”
Though these recordings appear to be in clear violation of Twitter’s and Facebook’s guidelines concerning targeted harassment, a spokeswoman for the former told the Washington Examiner that the video of Sims berating an elderly pro-life woman and encouraging his followers to “go protest out in front of her house” is “not currently a violation of the Twitter Rules.”
In contrast, Twitter permanently banned right-wing provocateurs Milo Yiannopoulos and Robert Stacy McCain in 2016 for similar behavior. Yiannopoulos encouraged his followers to harass actress Leslie Jones and McCain was accused of “participating in targeted abuse.”
Facebook has also banned Yiannopoulos as well as Infowars’ Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson. The tech company explained in a statement last week that it has “always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology.” At this point, there is no evidence that any of these people did anything rising to the level of Sims’ public abuse of teenage girls. Yet the Democratic lawmaker’s Facebook account is still live. Facebook has not responded to the Examiner’s request for comment.
It is important to note here that both Twitter and Facebook have banned left-wing activists. Facebook permanently booted Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Twitter, for its part, has banned the antifa-run “Smash Racism D.C.” account. But that is about it. Also, it is worth mentioning that Twitter temporarily suspended developer Victoria Fierce in 2017 for directing obscenities at Vice President Mike Pence. This makes Sims’ continued presence on Twitter even more confusing, considering he tweeted this on June 19, 2018:
OFFICIAL WELCOME: @MikePenceVP let me be the first to officially welcome you to the City of Brotherly Love and to my District! We’re a City of soaring diversity. We believe in the power of all people: Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Atheist, & Immigrant. So…get bent, then get out! pic.twitter.com/G9eLrXgeVn
— Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) June 19, 2018
However, though confusing, the difference between how two similarly minded anti-Pence activists have been treated by at least Twitter lends itself to the theory that the bans are being applied unevenly because it is a massive undertaking that has badly overwhelmed the finite number of eyes available to Facebook and Twitter. Political bias certainly plays a role in which accounts are being barred permanently, but it is not clear this is all part of a larger, shadowy campaign by tech giants to silence the Right.
