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Parental rights champion demands answers after Facebook allegedly branded her with child sexual abuse warning
Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Parental rights champion demands answers after Facebook allegedly branded her with child sexual abuse warning

A California-based champion for parental rights recently discovered that searches for her name on Instagram and Facebook prompted a warning stating, "Child sexual abuse is illegal."

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District and a Christian mother, is now demanding answers from the tech giant, which has allegedly done this to parental rights advocates on more than one occasion.

Background

Shaw has won the loathing of radical leftists for cluing parents in to what's happening with their children at school and enabling parents to challenge obscene content made accessible to students.

Under her leadership, CVUSD became the first district in the state to embrace a policy whereby school officials must inform parents if their kids request to use the bathroom intended for members of the opposite sex as well as if their confused children ask to use names and pronouns that don't correspond with reality or their official documents, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Shaw and other CVUSD officials have been threatened for taking this stand.

The Mercury News reported that Berkeley resident Rebecca Morgan was arrested on Aug. 1 on suspicion of threatening Shaw and others. Shaw indicated the vicious threats targeted not only her but her children and pets as well.

Like Morgan, the Newsom administration was also apparently prickled by Shaw's defiance of gender ideology.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta took legal action against Shaw's district on Aug. 28, claiming it violated privacy laws regarding transvestite students. In October, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge blocked the district from enforcing some of the related policies until the case was resolved.

It's not just deranged threats and an antipathetic state government that Shaw has had to deal with.

Tactically branded

The Liberty Justice Center, which represents Shaw, penned a letter Tuesday to Meta Platforms' chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead, noting that public searches for Shaw's name turned up the following message: "Child sexual abuse is illegal[.] We think that your search might be associated with child sexual abuse."

"Child sexual abuse or viewing sexual imagery of children can lead to imprisonment and other sever personal consequences," continues the Facebook warning. "This abuse causes extreme harm to children and searching and viewing such material adds to that harm. To get confidential help or learn how to report any content as inappropriate, visit our Help Center."

Users seeking Shaw or information about her on the Meta platforms were then allegedly given two options: see how to report child sex abuse content or get help.

According to the Liberty Justice Center, this "egregiously false statement" implied that Shaw "herself has been associated with child sexual abuse, which of course is FALSE."

Shaw and the legal group are skeptical that this was a mistake, noting that something similar happened to Nick Wilson, a Republican running for election to the California State Assembly.

RedState indicated that the problem affecting the parental rights advocates persisted until various high-profile users began drawing attention to the error.

Alex Villanueva, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff awaiting the results for how he fared in a primary election for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, noted Monday that "Meta has moved from shadow banning/throttling to outright trolling of those who defend children from abuse and/or support parental rights."

Buck Dougherty, senior counsel with the Liberty Justice Center, noted in a statement that "what is additionally troubling about Meta's false publication is that it appears to be calculated to retaliate against Ms. Shaw for her outspoken support and advocacy on behalf of parental rights in pending litigation by the California Attorney General against the Chino Valley Unified School District."

While acknowledging that Meta has since taken corrective action, the Liberty Justice Center said Shaw "has further concerns."

The Liberty Justice Center demanded an explanation as well as written assurance that Meta and its employees would not falsely brand Shaw again.

The firm further noted that "Ms. Shaw intends to exhaust all available legal remedies available to her on her own behalf, as well as Chino Valley Unified School District's behalf" to address the alleged efforts by Meta and its employees to "improperly interfere with ongoing litigation in California courts" involving the parental rights advocate and the CVUSD.

Shaw wrote on X, "Disgusted and horrified by Meta's baseless attack. No proof, just retaliation for defending parental rights???? Stand strong with me against their cowardly and despicable tactics. #TruthPrevails."

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Joseph MacKinnon

Joseph MacKinnon

Joseph MacKinnon is a staff writer for Blaze News. He lives in a small town with his wife and son, moonlighting as an author of science fiction.
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