“Facebook Censors Shakaboona,” by Kerry Shakaboona Marshall.
They’ve done it. Facebook censors have officially removed political commentator and human rights activist prisoner Shakaboona from the largest social media platform in the world. This act comes on the heels of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress denying accusations that Facebook is intentionally censoring political views they find objectionable. A poll taken by the Pew Research Center shows that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google institute stricter policies on the content that runs on their platforms, often leading to confusion concerning why some users are removed from their social platforms and others are not.
And now comes Shakaboona. Why has Facebook censors suddenly decided to suppress Shakaboona’s political speech by removing his Facebook page? Did Facebook deem Shakaboona’s political views objectionable? Facebook’s alleged reasons for removing Shakaboona’s Facebook page account is that prisoners aren’t eligible to use Facebook. Oh, so they are purging prisoners now. And that Facebook accounts can’t be maintained by someone else. In short Shakaboona’s Facebook account does not comply with Facebook’s terms. Oh, really? Consider the facts for a moment. The actual facts.
Shakaboona has maintained a Facebook page account for several years now. He has consistently expressed his political views on how [inaudible] social and racial injustice issues in America are contributing to online political discourse on his [inaudible] Facebook page. Congress recently held Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s feet to the fire for intentionally censoring political views and a data theft scandal.
Two weeks ago, Shakaboona posted articles on his Facebook page, calling on celebrities to seek pardons for political prisoners for President Trump. And right after the posting of those articles, Facebook shut down, frozen, locked out, suppressed, removed, suspended, purged, banned—in other words—censored Shakaboona from Facebook. It appears that Facebook censored Shakaboona, simply because they didn’t agree with political views calling on celebrities to seek presidential pardons for political prisoners in America. Period.
Maybe Congress was on to something here. Perhaps the time has come for Facebook and other social media companies to be regulated more for tipping the scales of online political discourse.
From the belly of the beast at Prison Radio, I am Shakaboona. Thank you for listening.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.