Sen. Scott Blasts Zuckerberg: “What Is Unsafe About Two Black Women Supporting The President?” (Video)

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses while testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott blasted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over their censorship of conservative views and demanded to know what was “unsafe” about two black women who support President Trump.

Zuckerberg appeared before the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives in Washington for the second day of questioning where he claimed that Facebook’s censoring of Diamond and Silk was the result of an “enforcement error.”

Scott, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, posted a video Wednesday of his remarks about Facebook during his committee’s meeting while Zuckerberg was being grilled by senators on Capitol Hill.

In a bit of irony, I’m posting video from our HELP Committee hearing today. As I’m sure many of you know, Mark Zuckerberg is on the Hill to testify today, and though I’m not on the Commerce or Judiciary Committees where he is being questioned, I did want to take the opportunity to express my concerns with Facebook seemingly censoring conservative views.

Russians trying to influence our elections? Kick them off. Racists or others trying to incite violence and hate? Goodbye forever. But @Diamond And Silk? Two black women sharing their conservative views? They are hardly “unsafe to the community”.

Senator Scott on Facebook Censoring Conservative Views

In a bit of irony, I'm posting video from our HELP Committee hearing today. As I'm sure many of you know, Mark Zuckerberg is on the Hill to testify today, and though I'm not on the Commerce or Judiciary Committees where he is being questioned, I did want to take the opportunity to express my concerns with Facebook seemingly censoring conservative views.Russians trying to influence our elections? Kick them off. Racists or others trying to incite violence and hate? Goodbye forever. But @Diamond And Silk? Two black women sharing their conservative views? They are hardly "unsafe to the community".

Posted by Tim Scott on Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Diamond and Silk spent months trying to get an answer from the social media giant about why there was a drop in engagement on their Facebook page.

Facebook finally informed them:

“The Policy team has come to the conclusion that your content and your brand has been determined unsafe to the community.”

A spokesperson for Facebook recently told the Washington Post that they had made an error in labeling Diamond and Silk “unsafe to the community.” The spokesperson stated:

We have communicated directly with Diamond And Silk about this issue. The message they received last week was inaccurate and not reflective of the way we communicate with our community and the people who run Pages on our platform. We have provided them with more information about our policies and the tools that are applicable to their Page and look forward to the opportunity to speak with them.

However, Diamond and Silk say they have not heard from Facebook since being branded “unsafe to the community.” In an interview, the ladies stated;

“We have not heard from Facebook, they have not communicated with us. We haven’t talked to them by phone. We haven’t heard from Facebook.” Senator Ted Cruz also questioned Zuckerberg over the banning of Diamond and Silk in a hearing with Zuckerberg yesterday, the Facebook CEO said at the time that Silicon Valley was “an extremely left-leaning place,” but that “I try to root out in the company is making sure we don’t have any bias in the work we do, and I think it is a fair concern that people would wonder about.”

One thing is for sure, heads will be rolling at Facebook headquarters when Mark Zuckerberg returns to the office. He did not look too comfortable being grilled by senators over the mishandling of Diamond and Silk, nor did he look like he appreciated being accused of censoring conservatives. From an observational standpoint, it appeared that Mr. Zuckerberg was unaware of the extent his staff had taken their orders to silence President Trump’s base.

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