Republicans were not convinced by a Facebook explanation as to why a Facebook post criticizing President Joe Biden cancelling student loan debt had been removed by the platform.
On Aug. 25, the House Judiciary GOP in a Twitter post alleged that Facebook blocked it from criticizing Biden’s waiver up to $10,000 in student loan debt.
“WOW – @facebook claims that our posting about repaying loans is in violation of their “community norms.” The post includes screenshots and was posted by the committee.
In the original Facebook post the Republican Committee wrote: “If you borrow a loan you have to repay it.” Period.”
WOW: @facebook says our post about paying back loans violates their “community standards.”
Big Tech is back at it. pic.twitter.com/Oo5lESfxwU
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 25, 2022
The post was removed from the public’s view after it was reported as in violation of social media platforms “community standards”. After protests from House Republicans, it was restored.
Facebook informed the committee it was a technical error. This statement came from an aide to Rep. Jim Jordan (R.Ohio), who is the top Republican in the House Judiciary Committee.
But the lawyer was skeptical.
“It is always a glitch when it comes to Republicans or Big Tech,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, top Republican on The Epoch Times’ House Judiciary Committee told The Epoch Times. “Nobody’s buying it .”
Conservatives have long accused big tech corporations of using their powers to suppress viewpoints and news that these companies do not agree with, including COVID-19 information and stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
When asked by The Epoch Times for comment, Facebook mentioned a statement made by Andy Stone (Meta’s communications director), stating that nothing in the GOP committee posting violated company policies.
” There is nothing in this post that breaches our policies. People should have been able to share it, and we are working to correct it immediately,” the spokesperson for the company stated.
The post was recovered on Aug. 26.
Student Loan Forgiveness
The incident came a day after Biden announced he would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for individual borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year, or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients making the same.
Democratic support praised the historic debt relief act, which Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.Mass.) hailed. describing it as one of the biggest acts of consumer debt relief in American history.
Republicans however condemned the act as unfair and benefited only wealthy elites.
Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. said that the broadscale forgiveness of student loans was Biden’s latest effort to get votes at the next midterms.
“Biden’s student loan boondoggle has dubious legality, and is an attempt to bribe more votes from his base,” Bishop said to The Epoch Times.
Bishop proposed that Facebook block Thursday’s GOP Committee’s opposition posting. This was just the latest example big tech’s censorship against Republicans.
“Big Tech wouldn’t censor Dem committee account, and everybody knows it,” he stated on Twitter.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said that the move was similar to the communist regime’s strict control over speech.
“The fact that our committee was censored for tweeting about accountability speaks volumes about the extent to which the radical Left will go to brainwash Americans to agree-an act not unlike the Chinese Communist Party,” he said to The Epoch Times.
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Dorothy Li works as a reporter at The Epoch Times, a newspaper based in Europe.
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Eva Fu is an American writer who lives in New York and writes for The Epoch Times. She focuses on U.S.-China relations as well as religious freedom and human rights. Contact Eva at [email protected]
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