Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to ban new political ads for the week leading up to Election Day on November 3.
Why is he doing this?
He says he's doing the ban and a few other changes because he fears "there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country."
Be informed, not misled.
Zuckerberg says, "This election is not going to be business as usual."
Among other things, Zuckerberg says he "will remove posts that try to suppress or discourage voting."
That sounds pretty subjective.
It's all subjective.
And it's extremely important what he does because Facebook currently (in 2020) has 223.03 million users in the United States. As of the first quarter of this year, the platform was accessed by 2.6 billion people per month.
When your kid or grandkid says nobody goes on Facebook anymore---smile and know better. Their traffic has grown every year since 2017 in the US, from 213.03 to 223.03 million currently. That's about two-thirds of our population.
Zuckerberg told his employees this week:
"The US elections are just two months away, and with Covid-19 affecting communities across the country, I'm concerned about the challenges people could face when voting. I'm also worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days and even weeks to be finalized, there could an increased risk of civil unrest across the country."
What could possibly give him that idea? Does he really think these "peaceful protests" could become violent?
NBC is a little more open in their bias. They say,
"Facebook's move comes amid growing fears that President Donald Trump and his supporters will use social media to spread evidence-free claims of voter fraud and cast doubt on mail-in votes, which are likely to delay the final results for several days."
And they report that Zuckerberg says "if any candidate or campaign tries to declare victory before the final results are in" we will "add a label to their posts directing people to the official results from Reuters."
I wonder if he will respond with the same gusto if Biden's "Hawkfish" organization tries to manipulate the election outcome?
I wrote about and talked about on our daily radio program yesterday how the Biden consulting "Hawkfish" group is promising it will appear that Trump has won on election night, however, days or even weeks later they promise Biden will have won as a result of the mail-in ballot count. You can read my article here.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Democrat Party is preparing "for a worst-case scenario in which Trump fights in courts and state legislatures after declaring a premature victory."
Democrats are also concerned, the oracle of the left says, that "Trump and his supporters will use social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to advance false claims."
There is no expressed concern that anyone of the Left would even consider doing such a thing.
It gives me pause to think that Zuckerberg would assume the role of savior of our election.
Have we forgotten that it was Harvard student, Zuckerberg, who was hired by the Winklevoss twin brothers, also Harvard students, to help them develop their idea of what we now know as Facebook. After being paid for his work, and having told the brothers it was taking longer than expected, Zuckerberg cut them out of the deal while introducing "Facebook" to the campus and ultimately to the world.
After the brothers sued Zuckerberg, he finally gave them $65 million and a little stock---a pittance compared to the current value of Facebook.
Things are different now. NBC says, "Facebook sees this as an opportunity to make up for failures during the 2016 election..."
Failures to do what in the 2016 elections? Elect Hillary?
Zuckerberg says, "This time around, however," Facebook is "increasingly seeing attempts to undermine the legitimacy of our elections from within our own borders."
The enemy within.
And he told his staff,
"I believe our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election---even if it takes time for every vote to be counted. We can do this. But its going to take a concerted effort by all of us---political parties and candidates, election authorities, the media and social networks, and ultimately the voters as well---to live up to our responsibilities."
The New York Times concludes their story with a word of encouragement for the Left:
"A democratic data group backed by Michael Bloomberg said this week that it is likely that Mr. Trump would appear to have won on election night by a landslide, a scenario it called 'a red mirage'."
What the NYT does not include is the organization's (Hawkfish) promise, that we talked about yesterday, that by the time the mail-in votes are counted Biden will win by a significant margin.
So...Why bother to vote?
There are many forces at work in America, working to destroy our very foundations. Now more than ever before, every biblical Christian must vote their conscience and their values.
The great Presbyterian pastor and preacher Charles Finney said this:
The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. . . . Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently. . . . Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it – and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they [Christians] take [in politics].
[Lectures on Revivals of Religion, 1868, Lecture XV, pp. 281-282.]
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful. Vote.