Facebook removes Babylon Bee satire mocking Sen. Hirono's treatment of Amy Barrett, says it 'incites violence'

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Hirono accuses Barrett of offensive use of term 'sexual preference'

Democrat Senator from Hawaii argues Supreme Court nominee would 'roll back' LGBTQ rights

Facebook cracked down on the conservative satirical site The Babylon Bee over an article mocking Hawaii's Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono's treatment of Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett during last week's confirmation hearings. 

Last Wednesday, the Bee ran a story with the headline, "Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch," alluding to the intense grilling Barrett faced from Hawaii's junior senator, who asked the judge if she had ever "sexually assaulted" anyone and scolded the nominee for using the term "sexual preference" to describe the LGBTQ community, which Barrett apologized for. 

"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!"

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According to the satirical piece, Hirono "then pulled a live duck out of a massive burlap sack next to her and announced: 'In addition to being a Senator, I am also quite wise in the ways of science. Everyone knows witches burn because they are made of wood. I think I read that somewhere. Wood floats, and so do ducks-- so logically, if Amy Coney Barrett weighs as much as this duck I found in the reflection pool outside, she is a witch and must be burned.'"

The image attached to the article is a clearly photoshopped image of Hirono at the hearing with a duck by her side. 

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon took to Twitter and revealed the lengthy battle his site has had with Facebook, who took down the satirical piece. 

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"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," Dillon wrote. "They say this article 'incites violence.' It's literally a regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie!"

"In what universe does a fictional quote as part of an obvious joke constitute a genuine incitement to violence?" Dillon asked. "How does context not come into play here? They're asking us to edit the article and not speak publicly about internal content reviews. Oops, did I just tweet this?"

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Dillon then slammed the tech giant for allowing an inciteful quote from a Black Lives Matter leader, who called to "burn down this system" if change isn't made amid the civil unrest, but is cracking down on "Monty Python" humor. 

"We will not be editing the article to get our page's monetization reinstated," Dillon vowed. 

Facebook did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. 

This isn't the first time the Bee was under fire by big tech. In August, the site's account was suspended by Twitter, which later offered an apology and insisted was a mistake.