A conservative political action committee on Monday accused Facebook of using its clout to “silence Black voices” after the platform removed an anti-Biden ad on Black families in the wake of a fact-check saying there was “no proof” to back the ad’s claims.
“More Than Anything,” the ad created for the conservative American Principles Project PAC by Brandon Wallace, who is Black, shows shots of then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden arguing in favor of the 1994 crime bill.
The one-minute digital ad then says that the Democratic presidential nominee supports Black Lives Matter, which “also wants to keep Black men from raising their children.”
“I needed my dad more than anything. Black lives, Black families and Black futures do matter, Mr. Biden, and it starts at home,” says the narrator, a young Black woman.
Facebook took down the one-minute ad on Saturday following a fact-check from Lead Stories, which said there is “no evidence that Biden has formally endorsed the organization or the exclusion of Black men from child-rearing.”
The ad referred to the Black Lives Matter Global Network’s recently deleted website statement: “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ’villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
Mr. Wallace said the statement contains messages downplaying the role of fathers. For one, the organization refers to “mothers, parents, and children,” but not fathers.
“What it means to me is that fathers, as the head of the family, have no place in their organization,” Mr. Wallace said in a statement. “Their plan to make up for the absence of fathers is to support each other as extended families in a ’village.’”
Our statement on @Facebook censoring another APP PAC ad and silencing Black voices: pic.twitter.com/nOIwDcp9tW
— American Principles (@approject) October 26, 2020
The Lead Stories fact-check said that, “Does Black Lives Matter want to keep Black men from raising their children and has Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden endorsed the organization? No, there is no evidence to support either claim.”
APP executive director Terry Schilling said he was “sadly not surprised by Facebook’s decision to remove the ad,” and accused the tech giant of censorship.
“The company’s actions over the last few weeks have made it clear that it will do whatever it takes to ensure Joe Biden is elected president, whether that means removing anti-Biden ads on absurd grounds or burying news stories which make Biden look bad,” Mr. Schilling said.
“But the idea that some left-wing fact-checker who failed to do even a cursory level of research on the issue should have the authority to silence Black voices?” he continued. “To prevent them from describing how Joe Biden’s policies would affect the Black community? That’s beyond the pale, and it’s anti-American.”
This isn’t the first time Facebook has scrubbed an APP ad. Last month, the platform removed a video blasting Michigan Sen. Gary Peters’ support of the Equality Act, which critics say would prohibit excluding transgender athletes from girls’ sports.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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