What conservatives need to understand about Facebook
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A man poses with a magnifier in front of a Facebook logo on display in this illustration taken in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, December 16, 2015. Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it is testing a service that will allow users of its Messenger app to hail Uber rides directly from the app, without leaving a conversation or downloading the ride-hailing app. . REUTERS/Dado Ruvic TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - GF10000268231
“Todd, how come I never see your stories in my Facebook news feed?”
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve received such a question from readers. They “like” our Facebook page and they “follow” our Facebook page – but for whatever reason, conservative content never makes it to their newsfeed.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Over the past few years, our Facebook community has grown to more than 255,000 conservative patriots – overwhelmingly from across the fruited plain.
It’s a robust group of people who care passionately about this nation and the Constitution. We are the gun-toting, Bible-clinging, deplorables of social networking.
However, because of Facebook algorithms, on any given day, according to analytics provided by Facebook that I can review for our page, it looks appears that barely 5,000 of our followers are actually able to see our content on their newsfeeds.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Facebook recently announced they plan to implement even stricter protocols that will all but erase our conservative news and opinion from your newsfeeds.
To be clear, Facebook has every right to determine how they want to run their company and what kind of content they will promote and support. And I deeply appreciate the opportunity to use their platform to share my writings.
But I write for conservative patriots and I want conservative patriots to be able to read my writings. So how do we make that happen in the age of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Well, we’re going “old-school.” We’re going to provide you a weekly newsletter. The newsletter will include links to every one of my stories and radio commentaries. And best of all – it’s free and we promise not to share your email address or spam you. If you register for our newsletter, you will receive one newsletter a week — that’s it.
Facebook has been a very unfriendly territory for conservatives and especially conservative Christians. I have documented countless instances of censorship, from Chicks-on-the-Right to Catholic organizations.
And you might remember I was named the Bad Boy of Facebook back in 2013.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I earned that badge of honor when Facebook blocked my page and removed a message I had posted that invoked Paula Deen, the National Rifle Association and Jesus Christ. Here’s what I wrote:
“I’m about as politically incorrect as you can get. I’m wearing an NRA ball cap, eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich, reading a Paula Deen cookbook and sipping a 20-ounce sweet tea while sitting in my Cracker Barrel rocking chair with the Gaither Vocal Band singing ‘Jesus Saves’ on the stereo and a Gideon’s Bible in my pocket. Yes sir, I’m politically incorrect and happy as a June bug.”
The folks over at Facebook took great offense to that message.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We removed this from Facebook because it violates our Community Standards,” Facebook wrote me. “So you’re temporarily blocked from using this feature.”
I wasn’t even allowed to post our daily Bible verse — a popular feature called “Morning Glory — Start Your Day Inspired.”
That being said, Facebook has been helpful in spreading our content across the country. Sadly, it appears that they are simply not interested in freedom of expression or freedom of assembly or freedom of speech.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}That is their right as a business. And it is our right to find another way to share our message with our fellow Americans.