Netizens have complained that Facebook deemed as no-go their attempts to repost stories shared by famed anti-establishment blog Zero Hedge, citing violations of community rules, the spread of hate speech and “abusive” content, as well as “errors” as the reasons for the move.
In what the blog referred to as “an arbitrary act of censorship”, “some readers were prevented by Facebook [sic] when attempting to share Zero Hedge articles”, to the publication’s puzzlement. The blog went on to specify that “virtually every attempt to share or merely mention an article, including in private messages, would be actively blocked by Facebook”, with the tech giant explaining that the content had breached its community standards.
Zero Hedge is a favourite media platform of City and Wall Street traders, known for its anti-establishment and bearish take on financial issues. Zero Hedge authors have railed against a variety of matters, most famously their criticism of Goldman Sachs’ trading platforms, which were later addressed by US regulators.
Social media users rushed to post screenshots featuring a technical error occurring every time they try to share a Zero Hedge story, while Facebook hadn’t issued any notice to this end to Zero Hedge, whose writers author articles under the pen name Tyler Durden, in a reference to the Brad Pitt-played character from the novel “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk.
Facebook is also reported to have ignored Bloomberg’s request for comment on the issue. Zero Hedge, meanwhile, suggested that Mark Zuckerberg’s brainchild might have decided to wage a war against the anti-establishment blog for publishing stories critical of Facebook.
“Freedom of speech and democracy as is”, one user stated, with another one weighing in:
“It’s modern book burning and draconian censorship”.
Facebook has banned #zerohedge its modern book burning and draconian censorship, you're next pic.twitter.com/voXNku2dck
— Laszlo MMG LLC (@MMGinvest) 12 марта 2019 г.
Another, similarly, felt stunned by the “well known financially heterodox” having been banned:
I just tried posting @zerohedge's story about @facebook
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) 12 марта 2019 г.
banning the well known financially heterodox @zerohedge.
I figured that this was insane. Facebook bans Zerohedge?
C'mon.
Ladies and Gentleman, Zerohedge was correct: the posts are 'spam' according to Facebook.
Stunned. https://t.co/HBVRnuLTAd
One netizen went as far as to call the social media giant “a bunch of Orwellian-Nazi types”, claiming he will get off the platform as soon as possible:
Facebook has blocked @zerohedge. I went and checked. It is true. Facebook is a bunch of Orwellian-Nazi types. I would get off that platform ASAP. Zuckerberg: You can rot in hell. They are saving a place for you.https://t.co/eIDzZEpuMR
— Dave Collum (@DavidBCollum) 12 марта 2019 г.
“Social media monopoly”, another stated univocally.
Most recently, the social network has been called out by right-wing groups and public figures over what they called a liberal bias and censorship of conservatives. Last year, Facebook banned right-wing radio host Alex Jones and his show InfoWars due to “hate speech”.
However, the company also suspended a number of well-known leftist anti-establishment pages around the same time, including those devoted to a battle against police brutality in the US. In a separate move, Facebook has of late become a new battlefront in the war against misinformation at large, and abundant conspiracy theories, such as anti-vaccination or foreign countries’ propaganda, etc. In particular, the social media giant suspended a number of pages run by Maffick media without prior notice, after CNN ran a report about the company’s purported ties to the Kremlin.
