Every single Conservative and Christian client has asked me if I am concerned about Facebook censoring their content. There is a big problem with this question, so I will break it down for you.

Let’s start with the enemy here… and it isn’t Facebook. Facebook has proven over and again that it really isn’t Left or Right; Facebook wants money. It is an ad company, and it will sell ads to basically anyone — this was especially true before the Russian scandal. You could run basically any ad you wanted in those days. Now, there is a ton more scrutiny. And this is the biggest issue I have with the “Facebook is censoring my post” messaging. 

This was a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Right. 

The data doesn’t play out that Facebook was censoring Conservative posts. In fact, Conservative content far outweighed Leftist content on Facebook, and so did the interactions. That’s the truth. Or it was until the idea of “censorship” forced Facebook to react to the scrutiny.

Now, ads and posts are under a bit of a microscope, so controversial content is getting rejected at a higher level. What controversial content? Anti-abortion, elections, etc… issues that Conservatives want to discuss and debate.

Facebook was never really the enemy of the Right. In fact, in 2020, Right-Leaning pages topped out at over 600,000, whereas Left-Leaning pages topped out around 300,000. The voice of the Right was twice as loud on Facebook, but it is looking as though the numbers won’t hold as Right-Leaning pages flock to alternatives. 

If conservatives want to engage the public, then they need to be where the public actually interacts — not create or go to an echo chamber platform.