Republican congressional candidate says Facebook censored her warning to Antifa
Marjorie Taylor Greene joins 'Fox & Friends First' to explain.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a GOP congressional candidate who is accusing Facebook of "censorship" after the social media giant took down her campaign video, told “Fox & Friends First” on Monday that the platform “is defending terrorists.”
Greene’s ad, posted on Facebook on Tuesday, shows the congressional candidate holding an AR-15 rifle and warning Antifa to "stay the hell out of northwest Georgia." By Thursday, Facebook told her campaign the video was coming down because it violated company policies against promoting the use of firearms.
“We’ve seen it time after time again where conservative Americans put their thoughts, their feelings and their expressions and their beliefs on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but yet our posts get deleted and we get censored,” Greene, a businesswoman running in Georgia's 14th District, said.
“So when we watched Antifa terrorize America, we saw riots, businesses burned, churches burned, looted, everyday Americans, innocent Americans attacked by these criminals and these thugs in the streets night after night after night, we started hearing rumors that Antifa was going to be coming to our community and we have the right to defend ourselves.”
Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters have demonstrated against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's death after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the unarmed man's neck for more than eight minutes. But an organized fringe element has sought to hijack the protests, destroy property and unleash violence, government officials say.
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In the ad, Greene takes on Antifa, the anti-fascist protest movement that the Trump administration contends is a domestic terrorist group responsible for the violent uprisings against police in recent days.
“I’m a legal gun owner, I have a Georgia weapon’s license, I’m a business owner, I’m also a wife and mom and I have every right to stand there and say, ‘Do not come and burn our churches, loot our businesses, and destroy our homes,’” Greene said on Monday.
“We have a right to defend ourselves and we have freedom of speech to say so.”
In a statement sent to Fox News, Facebook stood by its decision to remove the campaign video.
"We removed this ad, which advocates the use of deadly weapons against a clearly defined group of people, for violating our policies against inciting violence," Facebook said.
Greene noted that Facebook is “saying I’m inciting violence against them [Antifa], but yet that group of people are terrorists.”
“They’re Communist basement dwellers who have come out and poured gasoline on a fire and basically hijacked protests and turned it into complete chaos and anarchy in the streets of America and Facebook is defending them,” she continued.
“They’re not allowing us every day Americans to defend ourselves, they’re choosing the side of anarchists and terrorists.”
The campaign video is still running on Twitter, and Greene has bought air time to run the ad on broadcast and cable TV in advance of the Tuesday primary.
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Greene faces a crowded primary race against John Cowan, a neurosurgeon; Clayton Fuller, a former prosecutor; John Barge, former state schools superintendent; and Ben Bullock, an Air Force veteran. Also running in the GOP primary are Kevin Cooke, a state representative; Bill Hembree, a former member of the Georgia legislature; Andy Gunther and Matt Laughridge.
Fox News’ Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.