Texas Atty. General Candidate Says Facebook Pulled His Campaign Video Because He Supports Traditional Marriage

A Republican candidate for Texas attorney general says Facebook froze his account and deleted a video announcing his candidacy without explanation -- but suspects it was because of his support for traditional marriage.

Texas attorney general candidate Dan Branch said Facebook froze his account after he posted a campaign video that included support for traditional marriage. (Image source: Dan Branch/Facebook)

State Rep. Dan Branch was temporarily blocked from posting on his official Facebook page Thursday and had his announcement video removed because it apparently violated the site's "community standards," campaign manager Enrique Marquez told TheBlaze.

The Branch campaign contacted Facebook about which standard the video violated but was not given an explanation, Marquez said. Facebook prohibits content that is violent, threatening, graphic or deemed hate speech, among other restrictions.

Marquez said the campaign believes the video was flagged because Branch vowed to fight for the state's "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.

A 12-hour ban from posting expired Thursday afternoon, but Marquez said the campaign opted not to re-post the video until they were told exactly why it was removed in the first place.

"We have yet to get a straight answer as to why it's been deleted," Marquez said.

A representative from Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheBlaze.

Facebook has previously been accused of yanking content from conservative users.

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