Investigative

See for yourself the pro-life messages Twitter is suppressing

By Newsroom | June 27, 2017 , 05:00am

With the U.S. Senate just days or weeks away from voting to redirect Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to comprehensive health care providers, the legacy media continue to cheerlead for the abortion chain. To do their part in helping Planned Parenthood keep nearly $500 million annually in taxpayer funding, many media organizations are actively suppressing evidence that the abortion chain’s focus has been on increasing abortions while actually reducing what few women’s health services it does offer. Pro-life messages are often nowhere to be seen in the media.

As long as the mainstream media continue to cover up for Planned Parenthood, huge numbers of American taxpayers will never know that their hard-earned dollars are funding an abortion chain that does more abortions than breast exams and commits over 320,000 abortions every year.

The pro-life movement has been relying on social and digital media to get around the general media bias and take the evidence directly to the American people. But now the extreme pro-Planned Parenthood bias on Twitter is leading to censorship there and preventing millions of new people from being reached with pro-life messages, the real facts, and the actual statistics behind Planned Parenthood’s claims.

While Planned Parenthood is allowed to advertise on Twitter, the social media company has suppressed Live Action’s ads, calling our pro-life messages offensive and inflammatory. What exactly is Twitter calling so offensive and inflammatory? Tweeting a picture of a child developing in the womb and saying we believe in the right to life. Or tweeting ultrasound images, like the ones that most expectant moms hang on their refrigerator doors.

Planned Parenthood is allowed to tweet that a woman has a right to an abortion, but when Live Action tweets that a baby has a right to life, Twitter considers that “inflammatory” and “offensive.”

Planned Parenthood can tweet that people who don’t want their taxes funding an abortion chain are extremists, but when Live Action tweets that Planned Parenthood should be defunded, Twitter considers that “inflammatory.”

Planned Parenthood readily tweets about why it thinks women need Planned Parenthood, but when Live Action tweets that women don’t need Planned Parenthood, Twitter considers that “inflammatory.”

While it won’t censor Live Action’s and Lila Rose’s tweets outright, Twitter has banned our ability to advertise our content until we delete all the tweets it deems offensive – or, in reality, all the tweets that offend Planned Parenthood. Twitter has told us that we must delete:

all of our tweets calling for the end of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood,
all of our tweets of our undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood, and
any ultrasound images of preborn children.

Twitter has effectively limited speech on the side of the issue it apparently rejects. This is disturbing behavior for a social media platform that has over 300 million active users a month and that presents itself as a forum for people to voice a variety of opinions and positions.

Twitter’s Comment Policy

Twitter’s mysterious “policy committee” determines what content is offensive according to rules and standards it alone defines, with little explanation and no process for appeal. In fact, Live Action was told that a meeting with this team would not be possible.

While it is certainly within Twitter’s right to determine its own standards, its actions appear to be clearly biased against one side of this issue over the other. On an issue where Americans are divided, Twitter is acting to suppress pro-life messages that exposes the truth about abortion and Planned Parenthood’s lack of comprehensive health care for women.

It’s not surprising that one of Twitter’s founders, Evan Williams, recently apologized for the role Twitter played in electing President Trump (see here). They probably don’t want to have to also apologize for helping get Planned Parenthood defunded.

What the Numbers Show

Live Action’s undercover research and Planned Parenthood’s own numbers show that Planned Parenthood’s focus has been on increasing abortions while reducing what few women’s health services it does offer. There are thousands of better places to spend our tax dollars to help with women’s health care, and Americans deserve to see and read the facts.

According to Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports:

Over 10 years, prenatal services – which were negligible to begin with, are DOWN 29%. (13,261 out of 10.1 million total “services” [2005] vs. 9,419 out of 9.5 million total “services” [2015])
Breast exams – DOWN 62%. 842,399 (2005) vs. 321,700 (2015)
PAP tests – DOWN 74%. 1,116,681 (2005) vs. 293,799 (2015)
Abortions – UP 24%. 264,943 (2005) vs. 328,348 (2015)
Government funding – UP 82%. $305.3 million (2005) vs. $554.6 million (2015)

What Is Twitter Requiring?

Live Action’s pro-life messages in the photos above contrasted with Planned Parenthood tweets are from its regular Twitter feed and can still be found there. In order for Twitter’s advertising ban to be lifted, we are required to delete these tweets and others like them from our feed.

The Planned Parenthood tweets in the photos are apparently acceptable to Twitter because they were taken from Planned Parenthood’s Twitter feed, and Twitter representatives have told us that Planned Parenthood’s ad account is in good standing. The reason? Twitter says Planned Parenthood does not have “inflammatory” content on its account.

Twitter Is Not Alone

Unfortunately, Twitter is not the only social media organization suppressing the facts about Planned Parenthood. Some of Live Action’s videos get “content warnings” placed over them by YouTube. When a person tries to watch the video but is not logged in to YouTube, he is informed that the material may be “inappropriate.” This warning is placed over the video below that has no graphic images, but instead, actual statements from Planned Parenthood staff giving a woman false information about the science of fetal development. It seems too many social media companies consider messages that do not support Planned Parenthood “inappropriate.”