Facebook even removed a reader’s post that said, “Vote for Hovde!” labeling it spam.
Leftist Democrat Tammy Baldwin has pulled ahead by just over 27,000 votes in a state, benefiting from a despicable Democratic trick on voters that she never repudiated, as well as aggressive censorship by Facebook against Republican businessman Eric Hovde, which ramped up as the election tightened.
Facebook blatantly – and outrageously – interfered in the close Wisconsin race for U.S. Senate by repeatedly removing a Wisconsin Right Now news story that alerted voters about an “America First” candidate, Thomas Leader, who was recruited by Democrats in a deceptive attempt to defeat Hovde.
As of 8 a.m. on 11/6, Leager had more than 28,000 votes, according to the Associated Press – more than Baldwin’s margin of victory. She had declared victory. Hovde has not yet conceded.
The Associated Press first exposed the fact that Leager was recruited by Democrats who were hoping to siphon votes from Hovde to help Baldwin. “Democratic donors prop up far-right candidates including Wisconsin gun activist in Senate race,” the AP wrote, citing Leager as one of them. In Iowa, the AP’s investigation led to a criminal investigation.
In fact, Thomas Leager’s candidacy was part of efforts by Democrats masquerading as a “patriot group” to plant conservative-appearing candidates in key congressional races around the country, AP reported. The goal was to tank the Republicans in those races.
Read the details of the plot here.
That’s not all- Facebook also aggressively censored a story that critiqued Baldwin’s weak debate performance. We are Wisconsin’s only highly-read conservative news site outside talk radio, so censoring our stories mattered. That’s especially true because we have more than 1 million engagement on Facebook per year generally.
More election interference – Facebook removing WRN's story warning conservative voters about Thomas Leager's candidacy. pic.twitter.com/ncYFRZSFKn
— Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) October 14, 2024
In the most egregious example of Facebook censorship, on Oct. 13, Facebook removed a post sharing the story by WRN reader Dan Dahlke. “Vote for Hovde!” he wrote. Facebook removed the post, declaring that it “goes against our Community Standards on spam.” The story in question, which we published that same day, simply alerts readers to an Associated Press investigation that found that Wisconsin candidate Thomas Leager, who is positioned as a far-right conservative, was among candidates throughout the country actually recruited by a Democratic donor front group.
We told Hovde what Facebook was doing, and he said at the time: “This is Facebook engaging in election interference again. It is a well-established fact that Democrats have orchestrated a phony candidate under the America first name to confuse voters. This is hurting our democracy and Facebook is trying to unfairly interfere with an election.”
“It’s frustrating when I’m trying to inform my friends and family” about what’s going on with the election, Dahlke told WRN.
Facebook has targeted Wisconsin Right Now before, even though the news site has won multiple gold Milwaukee Press Club awards for the best investigative, news, and public service reporting in Wisconsin, among other honors. In May, Facebook removed a Wisconsin Right Now news story that accurately reported that Trump led President Joe Biden in a CNN poll, calling it “spam.” Facebook also briefly deleted Wisconsin Right Now’s page altogether, then dialed back our reach and banned us from posting live videos for a time due to our accurate news analysis of legal questions surrounding the Kyle Rittenhouse gun charge, which was subsequently thrown out by the judge. The other violation? Sharing the iconic Falling Man story by Esquire on 9/11.
Facebook also removed posts of the story on Leager on the pages of Wisconsin Right Now, its sister page WRN, and the page of one of its co-editors. In addition, multiple readers told Wisconsin Right Now that Facebook would not allow them to post the story.
More election interference against Hovde by #meta https://t.co/EFXm7fTH3q pic.twitter.com/gH6ov1Wkxg
— Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) October 13, 2024
More election interference by #Facebook against Eric Hovde https://t.co/EFXm7fTH3q pic.twitter.com/IIgWviXLIm
— Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) October 13, 2024
Election interference by #Facebook in the #Wisconsin Senate race to hurt Hovde https://t.co/EFXm7fUeSY pic.twitter.com/cUYElnRtaU
— Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) October 13, 2024
This is not insignificant. Wisconsin Right Now is Wisconsin’s most-read conservative news site outside talk radio. We have extensive reach on Facebook – more than 1 million a year.
Bizarrely, Facebook allowed some readers to post the story but not others. The censorship seems arbitrary. But it happened repeatedly.
When a WRN co-editor reposted the link, it remained up, at least for now. Facebook also allowed a post of the original AP story, which indicates Meta is targeting conservative media. To be blunt, though, many conservative readers in Wisconsin trust WRN stories more than they trust the AP. Furthermore, removing multiple posts strangled conservatives’ ability to broaden the reach on the story – and it’s a story that voters had a right to know.
