If Zuckerberg Regrets Censorship, He Must Stop Silencing Speech

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg now admits in writing that he was manipulated by the Biden administration into suppressing free speech on Meta platforms. His actions obstructed vital information on effective Covid protocols and bolstered the lie that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. This did enormous damage to our health and polity.

But Facebook’s censorship brought harm to innocent children too. I’m a longtime teacher, and for decades I’ve personally witnessed dangerous corruption in America’s schools. I dared to warn families, so I was silenced by Zuckerberg’s “shadow-banning,” thanks to algorithms imposed by censors (“fact-checkers”) at Meta.

Meta’s banning (as well as Twitter’s) began the very same night of my 2020 speech at the Republican National Convention. My pages changed from active with hundreds of likes and shares to zero likes and shares. And I went from rapid, daily follower increases to a complete halt in growth. Hundreds of my followers have reached out to me since the banning began to tell me that they no longer see my posts in their newsfeeds. Instagram’s (Meta’s) analytics show that an average of only 25 percent of my followers are seeing my content. That’s how shadow-banning works. I’m allowed to post, but my message is squelched.

Though I’m a volunteer in this battle for the kids, I had to hire social media experts to help me get my message to the public. They’ve reignited my social media presence — predominantly on Meta’s Instagram — with a reel-heavy strategy. Our ratios are the highest they’ve ever been — with the exception of follower count. That doesn’t add up.

It’s even worse on Facebook and X. We have high hopes that we’ll be freed on X since Elon is now in charge, but we’ve been unable to reach their tech team for support and believe our preexisting Twitter shadow-banning has yet to be lifted on X.

Government tech is suppressing my speech because I exposed so-called teachers unions for morphing America’s schools into social, sexual, and political warzones, and I shared personal stories of how they pick on loving teachers and little kids. Though I spoke 100 percent eyewitness truth, I’m still shadow-banned four years later.

I know many people like me who are also banned on social media. We’re denied our free speech rights, while the predators we’re exposing broadcast loudly.

Zuckerberg stated that he believes “the government pressure [to censor content] was wrong.” He also penned, “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

That sounds nice. But I’m still shadow-banned, and the day after Zuckerberg’s letter released, my personal page was inexplicably suspended. Many of my allies in the cause for truth are banned too.

Because of the censorship, we’re now ruled by tyrants. I have friends whose family members died from untested Covid shots and government-mandated hospital protocols. I know many who are suffering serious shot-related health complications. And the kids I’ve been trying to protect are being sexualized in our schools in record numbers.

That’s why I’m concerned about Zuckerberg’s claims that he’ll “push back if something like this happens again,” because it’s still happening — it never stopped. He never freed us from censorship.

Nothing Zuckerberg can say now will erase the injury he and the other tech titans have done to the country that made them billionaires. But I’ll believe he’s sorry when he ends the silencing of honest Americans like me.

Who knows how many Americans are dead, or severely injured, because tech titans silenced expert opposing views about the government’s handling of Covid? How many of those untested shots would have been rejected? How many patients would have taken commonsense, award-winning medicines like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, instead of dying on ventilators?

How many Americans might have voted differently in 2020 had they known the Hunter Biden laptop — loaded with authoritative accounts of government corruption and crime — was legitimate?

A little closer to home, how many additional families have lost their children to sexualized curricula, school violence, and the transgender agenda because Zuckerberg blocked our vital information about corruption in government schools? How many kids lost two years of learning because schools were shuttered thanks to the politicking of teacher unions? While those unscrupulous unions enjoy the freedom to propagandize on social media, thousands of commentators, including myself, are still shunted off the main feeds of innumerable apps because we dare stray from the official government tech line.

That my friends, is reflective of communism.

In regard to demoting the Hunter laptop as “Russian disinformation,” Zuckerberg now says, “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again — for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.” Since I’ve been demoted for four years without explanation, this is not reassuring.

And what about the hundreds of millions of dollars in cash Zuckerberg doled out to nearly 2,500 counties in 49 states? All on the up-and-up? Not according to numerous skeptics, including Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member who in 2021 said it was clearly an effort to aid Democrats. Spakovsky said, “This was a carefully orchestrated attempt to convert official government election offices into get-out-the-vote operations for one political party.”

In a contemporary period where numerous government agencies are weaponized to serve the so-called Democratic Party in its persecution of those they dislike, Zuckerberg’s words here are poignant. “I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other,” Zuckerberg deadpanned, adding meaningfully, “I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”

But it’s hard to believe a man who cannot fully admit that his actions did benefit Democrats over the democratic process, and who continues blocking truth-tellers on the very day he released his confession.

Calling your bluff, Zuckerberg. Prove your sincerity by freeing persecuted truth-tellers like me. You can find me @RebeccaForKids.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

Rebecca Friedrichs is the founder of For Kids and Country, author of Standing Up to Goliath, and a 28-year public school teacher who was lead plaintiff in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.