According to CBN, Sean Feucht, a worship leader associated with Bethel Music, recently shared several social media posts that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are now censoring worship and praise videos.
Apparently, Feucht was going to places where there has been rioting and then posting videos of praise and worship from these locations. And while these social media corporations allowed posts of actual rioting, somehow praise and worship songs was considered insensitive or harmful and removed.
Feucht tweeted:
While @Facebook @instagram @Twitter promote the content of violence, rioting & destruction, they are actively CENSORING worship, prayer, peaceful protest & anything going against their fear-mongering narrative.
My feed and many others is proof.#ChangeTheNarrative
— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) June 23, 2020
Feucht reports that Instagram justified the removal of his praise and worship videos because they were classified as “harmful” or containing “false information”:
This is what we’ve come to in America!
Instagram is now classifying my WORSHIP videos as “harmful or false information”
Religious Liberty? Freedom of Speech? Big Tech censorship? pic.twitter.com/I7s6HUfKH4
— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) June 23, 2020
But not only that when another person tried to share Sean’s worship videos he was met with a similar warning:
Fortunately, free-speech censorship by Big Tech social media corporations is starting to catch the attention of politicians. Now it is true, that social media companies have the same freedom of speech rights that American citizens do and as such are free to censor who they want.
But there is another important issue at play here. It boils down to the difference between a ‘platform’ and ‘publisher’.
Big Tech social media are considered platforms that users are free to upload to. Because of this, these social media giants have been granted special freedom under federal law, so they can’t be held liable, including copyright infringement, for videos and posts uploaded to their platforms by users.
This differs from a news site or publisher that can be held liable because they not only choose who can post on their site but as well have editorial control of the articles.
However, some are suggesting that when social media platforms censor or add warnings to posts and videos (likened to editorial control) that they are no longer functioning as a platform but rather as a publisher.
It seems they want to censor people they disagree with, while at the same time enjoying the liability privileges of a platform.
Some argue, it should be one way or the other, these social media giants should not be allowed to have it both ways. They are either a platform or a publisher.
CBN reports that politicians have reached out to Sean about what happened. One of them is Josh Hawley who, according to his Twitter profile, is not only a senator from Missouri, but also a constitutional lawyer:
Cancel culture meets #BigTech. Now @instagram is censoring a Christian worship leader who wants to post videos of praise and worship from places where there has recently been unrest. And that doesn’t meet “community standards”? Can’t wait to hear the explanation for this https://t.co/QoQcpEo2q8
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 23, 2020
In a recent Facebook post, Sean commented on the latest developments. It appears other politicians have contacted him along with representatives from Facebook and Instagram:
What They Don’t Want You To See!!!! 🙏🏾🙏🏼❤️⠀
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The rage against the John 17 UNITY prayer of Jesus is real right now in Big Tech. US Senators & Congressman have reached out to me concerning the blatant censorship of worship, prayer & peaceful protest rallies we’ve captured.⠀
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They’ve confirmed its not just my accounts but unrest and violence are promoted for clicks while peace and unity are suppressed.⠀
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Facebook/Instagram reached out as well and we’re in some…uh…discussions 😜. More to come in a few days on this
READ: Instagram censors worship leader’s praise post, labelling his faith ‘false and harmful’
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