Facebook Bans anti-lockdown protest pages.. Does this violate freedom of speech?

Written by Monica Yelinyan

Many citizens are not satisfied with the lockdown and want to protest. Facebook is therefore used as a means to organize the protests. This possibility has already come to an end.

April 20, 2020 - Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says the platform sees anti-quarantine protests as "harmful misinformation". He says the following: ‘More than normal political discourse, I think a lot of the stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation.’

In a video interview the ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Mark Zuckerberg, “How do you deal with the fact that Facebook is now being used to organize a lot of these protests that defy social distancing guidelines in States? If somebody is trying to organize something like that, does that qualify as harmful information?”

“We do classify that as ‘harmful misinformation’” responded Zuckerberg, “and we take that down.”

The famous social media has also announced that they will remove information about anti-lockdown protests in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska. And they want to talk to other states to find out about protests that are planned there whether that will violate stay-home rules.

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the US President, tweeted "Why is @Facebook colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech? Regardless of what you think about the lockdown or the protests against them, this is chilling & disturbing government directed shutdown of peoples 1st Amendment rights. Very dangerous! "