Prager University, which produces conservative content including man-on-the-street and explainer videos on conservative values and philosophy, claimed Friday that Facebook is heavily censoring its content.
And they have the evidence to prove it.
What are the details?
The video outlet posted an image to social media showing its Facebook analytics. The picture shows that the last nine PragerU videos posted to its Facebook page — which has millions of followers — reached almost zero people, while two videos were deleted altogether.
BREAKING: We're being heavily censored on @Facebook. Our last 9 posts are reaching 0 of our 3 million followers. A… https://t.co/FCd2qx2tjo— PragerU (@PragerU) 1534523520.0
The report comes amid growing concerns about the power social media giants wield over the flow of information on the internet.
For several years now, there have been concerns that tech giants like Facebook and Google passively censor conservative-leaning news outlets and pages by limiting the reach of their content. Limiting reach reduces visibility, which in turn hurts their ability to advertise and make money.
How did Facebook respond?
In a tweet, the company apologized for "mistakingly" removing the videos, which limited the reach of subsequent content. The company also said it restored the deleted videos.
We mistakenly removed these videos and have restored them because they don't break our standards. This will reverse any reduction in content distribution you’ve experienced. We’re very sorry and are continuing to look into what happened with your Page.
— Facebook (@facebook)August 18, 2018
How did PragerU respond to Facebook's statement?
They did not buy what Facebook was selling.
Does anyone really believe this was simply a mistake? https://t.co/DZZ5MUmjg4— PragerU (@PragerU) 1534553165.0
Removing two videos, marking them as “hate speech” and then subsequently censoring over 15 of our following posts t… https://t.co/OwkHpcHZ74— PragerU (@PragerU) 1534553307.0
Anything else?
PragerU sued Google last year alleging "intentional" censorship of its videos on YouTube, which Google owns. PragerU said 15 percent of its videos were placed in "restrictive mode," which severely limited their reach.