Live Action President Lila Rose appeared on “Fox News Tonight” to discuss the recent censorship of pro-life speech on Twitter. As Live Action reported last month, Twitter blocked Live Action’s promoted tweets due to the “sensitive content,” while allowing abortion giant Planned Parenthood to promote its pro-abortion ads. This month, Twitter did likewise to a campaign tweet from pro-life Senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn. As the Washington Examiner reported:
In the ad, Blackburn addressed Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue scandal, saying she “stopped the sale of baby body parts.” Twitter claimed on Monday that amounted to “an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction” and blocked the ad from its platform unless the campaign removed it. By Tuesday, however, Twitter had reversed its decision amid significant backlash.
That backlash is what Rose addressed Thursday:
In the spot with Brian Kilmeade, Rose said that while Twitter and Facebook have similar mission statements about sharing ideas and fostering communication, Facebook has been largely open to all sides of issues, but Twitter’s message is, Rose said: “If you’re pro-life, your ads are going to be blocked.”
By blocking speech it does not agree with politically, Rose asserted that the social media tech giant is “misleading the public”:
I think the more noise we make the between because we’re telling them, ‘Look, Twitter, you can’t claim to be one thing and build relationships with advertisers under a certain premise when you’re actually not fulfilling it — when you’re actually lying to people about who you are, and you’re actually blocking and censoring pro-life speech.
Rose also noted that pro-life speech is not just a political issue but a cultural belief that life is precious.
“Why is that so controversial for Twitter?” Rose asked, noting that Twitter’s censorship was criticized by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg came out in support of Blackburn and free speech on social media networks, and noted that when divisive speech is censored, it cuts off “speech for all.” The Washington Examiner reported:
The question is, should divisive political or issue ads run? Our answer is yes. When you cut off speech for one person, you cut off speech for all people. I think the responsibility of an open platform is to let people express themselves. We don’t check the information people put on Facebook before they run it and I don’t think anyone should want us to do that.”
While Twitter reversed its course on Blackburn’s video ad, Live Action’s ad accounts are still blocked. As Rose said in a Washington Post report last month:
This wasn’t about one issue with one aspect with one ad. This was about the entirety of our message, from ultrasound images of life in the womb to criticism of abortion facilities. The heart of Twitter’s self-named purpose is to “give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.” They are completely violating that.
