The investigative group Project Veritas – which we have covered multiple times on this blog – now has the social media giant Facebook in its sights, as an insider explained how conservative pages are “deboosted.”

James O’Keefe and Project Veritas got documentation and an interview from a now-fired Facebook contractor. Facebook claims they fired the person for “performing a stunt” for Project Veritas (i.e., for whistle-blowing).

What’s not in dispute is that these documents, detailing how Facebook deliberately “deboosted” certain conservative pages, has already led them into court, most notably by Steven Crowder.

Conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s page had been suppressed before in April 2016, and Crowder told Project Veritas they settled a dispute related to the issue with Facebook out of court. Asked for comment on this story, Steven Crowder’s attorney Bill Richmond said:

“Louder With Crowder is investigating the allegations of concealed stream throttling by Facebook. The accusations are deeply troubling given the previously settled dispute with Facebook uncovered by Gizmodo.com, which found the show was targeted by Facebook workers with secret audience restrictions on political grounds alongside other prominent conservative voices.”

This is not new news to anyone on Facebook that they are interested in promoting only one side. What is compelling is the proof that they actively suppressed the conservative side as well.

According to the insider, the documents revealed a routine suppression of the distribution of conservative Facebook pages. The technical action she repeatedly saw, and for which Project Veritas was provided documentation, was labeled ActionDeboostLiveDistribution. Said the insider, “I would see [this term] appear on several different conservative pages. I first noticed it with an account that I can’t remember, but I remember once I started looking at it, I also saw it on Mike Cernovich’s page, saw it on Steven Crowder’s page, as well as the Daily Caller’s page.”

A screenshot of an action log on Mike Cernovich’s Facebook page provided by the insider, shows the tag. The insider believes that the “deboost” code suppresses the distribution of livestream videos on Facebook. Project Veritas spoke to a current Facebook employee off the record who said that the code could limit a video’s visibility in news feeds, remove sharing features, and disable interactive notifications.

When approached for comment, author and filmmaker Mike Cernovich said the troubling issue is that Facebook could just “make stuff up” about people through these systems. “Facebook, or an individual at Facebook, has the unilateral power to create false allegations against someone he or she doesn’t like. The person accused not only can’t do anything about the allegation, they don’t even have an idea the allegation was made,” said Cernovich.

The insider says that unlike many actions that Facebook content moderators can take against pages, the “deboost” action, which appears to occur algorithmically, does not notify the page’s owner. “[W]ith these ‘deboost live stream’ things, there was no warning sent to the user… These were actions that were being taken without the users knowing.”

Project Veritas’s full report can be watched here:

And James O’Keefe’s response to Facebook’s admission that they do “deboost” conservative pages (thus confirming the veracity of the whistle-blower) can be seen here:

Facebook confirms "deboosting;" calls investigative journalism a STUNT! pic.twitter.com/o09XaHXxJW

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 28, 2019

Facebook, like all other social media, relies on their users to provide the content to keep people coming back. They also enjoy a near-monopoly on the social profile market, which means they are overdue for an actual competitor. Actions like these will only push those who are convinced Facebook is tracking their likes and comments to a new platform. All the social media platforms are now actively engaged in shaping the conversation and quieting those they don’t like. And I’m convinced that as 2020 approaches, it will only get worse.

Featured image via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay License free for commercial use