Facebook Removes GOP Texas Attorney General’s New Campaign Ad

03 Aug, 2013 by Warner Todd Huston

Print this article Font size -16+

Again showing how easy it is to have conservatives blocked or removed from Facebook, the new video campaign ad for Dan Branch, the Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General, was removed from the social media giant for “community standards” violations.

The ad, a fairly standard campaign ad, was removed and the candidate’s page blocked likely because Branch’s opponents flagged the Facebook posting.

The theme of the ad is “Come And Take It!,” and is filled with images of flags, pledges, hand holding, people in prayer, and talk of limited government, traditional marriage, and pro-life issues. It’s all pretty standard fare, especially for a Texas Republican.

Through emails, the campaign said that it wasn’t ready to make a full statement and is waiting to hear from Facebook as to why the ad was removed and the account frozen.

However, campaign manager Enrique Marquez said the campaign believes the video was blocked because State Representative Branch vowed to fight for the “right to define a marriage as between one man and one woman.”

“[We] suspect that…someone considered it hate speech and it was brought down…all signs point to that and Facebook isn’t giving us any answers,” Marquez said

Facebook has repeatedly had this problem with conservative pages and posts.

To mention just a few of the latest incidents, in February Facebook blocked the account of Tea Party Moms, in May Facebook blocked a posting from the conservative rock band Madison Rising, and early in July Facebook blocked Fox News Radio’s Todd Starnes after he posted a quip about being “politically incorrect.”

All this was a result of a large number of liberals claiming that the conservative postings on Facebook were somehow offensive. This abuse of the reporting function is all too common and it is something Facebook has yet to address.

Still, Facebook has no problems with pages such as “Kill Zimmerman” and pages that host vile attacks against such conservatives as Sarah Palin.

By Friday, Facebook had reinstated the ad and given bak control of the page to the Branch campaign.