Facebook has obliterated GOP gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase’s state Senate page as a critical Virginia election approaches.
“Facebook appears to have permanently removed State Sen. Amanda Chase’s official state Senate page, according to email communications provided by the campaign,” Virginia Business reported March 22. “After multiple unsuccessful attempts by her campaign to get her public page reinstated as recently as last week, Chase, R-Chesterfield, said Sunday that she is considering a national class action lawsuit against the social media giant on behalf of herself and others whose pages were restricted because of content related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.”
Chase reportedly condemned Facebook for “[adopting] un-American policies” and speculated: “This is all a target on conservative Republicans. This has lit a fire under me. I will put Facebook out of business.” Censoring Chase’s official campaign page was no small case of deplatforming. Chase stated that she had “144,000 followers on the public page, where she frequently posted live videos and photos from events,” according to Virginia Business.
Chase campaign worker John Findlay commented that although Chase wanted to sue Facebook, he doubted a lawsuit could make an impact by the May 8 convention. He remained optimistic and commented that as far as the Republican gubernatorial field was concerned, “I think she’s still the overwhelming favorite.”
Chase’s Facebook ban “occurred at the same time that then-President Donald Trump’s public Facebook page was banned indefinitely,” Virginia Business wrote. The same article explained that her campaign, through Findlay, went out of its way to negotiate with Facebook so that her page could remain online:
“On March 11, Findlay, whose wife is also part of Chase’s campaign staff, emailed Facebook employee Rachel Holland, who is responsible for U.S. politics and government outreach. Findlay’s email to Holland was conciliatory, writing that Chase was ‘more than willing to comply’ with Facebook’s requests, including deleting posts and ‘avoiding forbidden content.’ Findlay added that Chase ‘would like to do a great deal of advertising’ on Facebook. He said in an interview Sunday that he considered the request ‘likely a longshot, but it was a distinct possibility,’ noting that Chase and Trump are the only high-profile political figures whose pages have been removed by Facebook.”
Facebook responded to inquiry from the MRC by explaining "We’ve removed Senator Chase’s Page for repeatedly violating our Community Standards and placed her profile in a feature block meaning she will lose the ability to post on Facebook during this time.” How long this punishment is expected to last remains unclear.
Multiple Big Tech platforms cracked down on Trump’s account following the former president’s call for peace amid political unrest in D.C., which saw rioters storm the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6. The crackdown on a sitting president and his supporters was so severe that even foreign world leaders ranging from Mexico to members of the European Union condemned Big Tech in the following days.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at 1-650-308-7300 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
