Gidley blasts Facebook for 'unacceptable' removal of pro-Trump ad, says site 'suppressing conservative facts'
Social media giant must choose if it's a 'platform' or a 'publisher,' Trump 2020 spokesman says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump 2020 campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley slammed Facebook as "absolutely egregious" on "America's Newsroom" Friday after the social media company removed a pro-Trump ad and a video clip from an interview with the president over claims they contained "false information."
"These Silicon Valley liberal elites are using their platforms to silence, to censor, to stop free speech and it's completely unacceptable," Gidley told host Sandra Smith, adding Facebook must decide if it's a "platform" or a "publisher."
FACEBOOK REMOVES PRO-TRUMP AD AIMED AT JOE BIDEN, CLAIMING FALSE INFORMATION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You can’t go back and forth and be wishy-washy and hide behind either title as long as it suits your political agenda," he said. "They do that time and time again."
On Wednesday, Trump told "Fox & Friends" that the nation's schools should reopen in the fall, saying, “If you look at children, children are almost — and I would almost say definitely — but almost immune from this disease.” Video of that remark was posted by the campaign and later shared by the president before being taken down.
"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," Facebook spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois told Fox News in a statement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gidley compared Facebook to "fake news," saying the site's algorithms and glitches never favor conservatives.
FACEBOOK REMOVES TRUMP POST OVER CORONAVIRUS MISINFORMATION RULES; TWITTER ALSO CLAMPS DOWN
"They are literally highlighting liberal feelings and suppressing conservative facts," he said. "That something that has to be highlighted and we have to stop it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Fox News in May his company "shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online."
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Dispite claims by Facebook and Twitter fact-checkers that Trump spread misinformation about COVID-19 and children, Gidley said the president is backed by science and medical experts.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The fact that Facebook and Twitter are trying to be arbiters of the truth is laughable. It’s not about Facebook’s truth, it's not about Twitter’s truth, it’s about the real truth," Gidley concluded. "The president delivered that and they censored it."