Facebook took down a video of an Australian MP, George Christensen, speaking out in parliament against coronavirus lockdowns.
Christensen, who sits with the National Party of Australia, told fellow MPs in the Australian Parliament that the threat of COVID was not worth the cost of sacrificing freedom.
“When will the madness end? How many more freedoms will we lose due to fear of a virus, which has a survivability rate of 997 out of 1,000,’’ said the MP.
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 26: George Christensen (centre) stands with other members of The Nationals as the new leader of The Nationals, Michael McCormack, is elected as leader of the Nationals on February 26, 2018 in Canberra, Australia. Former National Party leader Barnaby Joyce resigned from the position last week after it was revealed he had separated from his wife and was expecting a child with his former media adviser Vikki Campion. (Photo by Michael Masters/Getty Images)
“It’s time we stopped spreading fear and acknowledge some facts: masks do not work. Fact. It has been proven that masks make no significant difference in stopping the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
“Lockdowns don’t work. Fact. Lockdowns don’t destroy the virus but they do destroy people’s livelihoods and people’s lives. Studies have shown they can even increase mortality rates.”
According to Reclaim the Net, the video was taken down due to Facebook’s COVID-19 “misinformation” policy.
It is not the first time that Facebook has censored a politician for discussing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. This is the second day of testimony before Congress by Zuckerberg, 33, after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign.
In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, the platform removed a post from the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who posted a video of himself discussing the pandemic with his citizens at a public gathering. Bolsonaro was discussing the need to balance concern about the pandemic with the economic impact of lockdowns.
Earlier this year, the platform once again censored Bolsonaro, over a video discussing the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as coronavirus treatments.
In August 2020, Facebook revealed it has censored over 100 million posts about the coronavirus for “misinformation” over the course of three months.
A Facebook Spokesperson provided the following statement to Breitbart News: “We don’t allow anyone, including elected officials or public figures, to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm, or misinformation that could lead to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Specific to discouraging COVID-19 preventative health practices, we do not allow false claims that wearing a face mask does not help prevent the spread of COVID-19. We have removed this video for breaching our policies”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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