Diamond and Silk Accuse Facebook of Lying About Communications
Lynnette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson refuted a claim that they were not being honest when they stated earlier this week that Facebook had not contacted them about its decision to no longer suppress their page.
Furthermore, the two stated that their page is still being censored, contrary to assurances by CEO Mark Zuckerberg before Congress.
Zuckerberg testified on Wednesday that his company had committed an “enforcement error” when it suppressed Diamond and Silk’s page after they had been deemed by Facebook “unsafe to the community.” He also said that representatves from his company had contacted them to say the decision to suppress the pro-Trump duo had been reversed.
Hardaway and Richardson addressed the matter of communication from Facebook in an interview with Fox News’ “Watters’ World,” which will air on Saturday night.
Host Jesse Watters asked, “The Facebook people are claiming that they have tried to reach out to you via phone calls and Twitter and Facebook messaging and they are commenting on your Facebook page … have you guys seen any of that outreach or not?”
“Let me just tell you what we saw,” Hardaway responded. “We woke up the other day and we saw something on Twitter where they said to us, verified Facebook page said that they have been trying to contact us for us to get into contact with them and that’s what we did. But we also noticed somebody named Erick Erickson that put something out in the media, he’s such a liar.”
Richardson chimed in agreeing, “A liar.”
Conservative blogger Erick Erickson posted on Thursday what he indicated were emails obtained from Facebook, showing the company had tried to make contact with Diamond and Silk on Monday.
Erickson also wrote that a Facebook told him that they had made two phone calls, as well. Facebook informed the New York Daily News that the calls were made on Tuesday.
A statement from the social media giant to Fox News that same day read: “We have communicated directly with Diamond and Silk about this issue. The message they received last week (about being categorized as “unsafe”) was inaccurate and not reflective of the way we communicate with our community and the people who run Pages on our platform.”
Hardaway and Richardson told FNC’s Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night no one from Facebook had been in touch with them.
On a Wednesday morning radio program, the two stated they still had not heard from Facebook.
Hardaway confirmed with Watters, “Who said that Facebook talked to us and emailed us before we went on Fox News and that is a lie.”
She continued, “Facebook sent us an email on April the fifth deeming us as unsafe to the community. We put that out on April the sixth which was that Friday about what they had did.”
Diamond and Silk tweeted that the first time they saw a communication from Facebook was on Thursday, April 12 (a day after Zuckerberg’s testimony). They responded with an email on Friday morning to which Facebook did reply, promising to set up a time to talk.
Update: After being contacted by Facebook via twitter on 4-12-18, we've contacted Facebook this morning (4-13-18) and we've just received this email back. pic.twitter.com/G235aNEEmM
— Diamond and Silk® (@DiamondandSilk) April 13, 2018
Hardaway told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that they did not have any problems with their page being suppressed before Facebook’s algorithm change, which has negatively impacted many conservative sites.
.@DiamondandSilk on Facebook censorship: "We also understand that Mark Zuckerberg, he obtained the American dream. And Diamond and Silk, that's all we're trying to do is obtain the American dream." @TeamCavuto pic.twitter.com/k8QLdqIIII
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 12, 2018
“We also understand that Mark Zuckerberg, he obtained the American dream,” Richardson said. “And Diamond and Silk, that’s all we’re trying to do is obtain the American dream.”
“For someone … to put their feet on our neck and suppress our voices, suppress our platform. That is wrong!” she added.
The two tweeted on Friday their page is still being suppressed.
Good morning all. It's been 13 hrs and still no change. We have 1.5 Million followers and @facebook only allowed this FB post to reach 6 people. Question to Facebook.
1. What is wrong with this specific post and why can't we boost it?
2. Why are we still being censored? pic.twitter.com/ubV0YmZCcn— Diamond and Silk® (@DiamondandSilk) April 13, 2018
“We have 1.5 million followers and @Facebook only allowed the FB post to reach 6 people,” Hardaway and Richardson wrote.
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