Facebook demonetized the conservative satirical site Babylon Bee and censored the site’s page over an article mocking Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono’s treatment of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
The article in question ran with the headline, “Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch,” which is a take-off of a “Monty Python” sketch.
“After two days of Amy Coney Barrett gracefully and stoically answering questions with perfect recall and no notes, suspicions grew on Capitol Hill that she might be a practitioner of the dark arts,” the Bee’s satirical report began.
“Oh, she’s a witch alright, just look at her!” the Bee fictitiously quoted Hirono. “Just look at the way she’s dressed and how she’s so much prettier and smarter than us! She’s in league with Beelzebub himself, I just know it! We must burn her!”
The image attached to the article was clearly photoshopped to include an image of a duck next to Hirono at the hearing.
But Facebook claimed the article “incites violence,” according to Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, and demanded that the Babylon Bee remove the post from its page.
When the Bee refused, Facebook demonetized their website.
But Dillon said his company would not give into pressure from the social media giant.
So after a manual review, Facebook says they stand by their decision to pull down this article and demonetize our page. I’m not kidding. They say this article “incites violence.” It’s literally a regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie!https://t.co/U9B6tTOj6N
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) October 20, 2020
“In what universe does a fictional quote as part of an obvious joke constitute a genuine incitement to violence? How does context not come into play here? They’re asking us to edit the article and not speak publicly about internal content reviews,” Dillon added. “We will not be editing the article to get our page’s monetization reinstated.”
A Black Lives Matter leader said that if change doesn’t happen, they’ll “burn down this system.” That’s allowed on Facebook. You can quote it. You can link to it. But a Monty Python joke about burning a witch at the stake? That’s incitement to violence. ? show.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) October 20, 2020
