Report: Instagram Removes Babylon Bee's Pro-Life Post, Citing 'Hate Speech'
Adam Ford, founder of The Babylon Bee, found himself in apparent violation of Instagram’s “Community Guidelines” on Wednesday for posting an excerpt from a pro-life webcomic of his own creation to the site last month.
Ford was made aware of his violation early this week when he received a message from Instagram indicating the post had been flagged for “hate speech” and was removed by an Instagram staff member.
The Babylon Bee is a popular satirical Christian news website.
Ford tweeted a screenshot of the Instagram’s direct message Wednesday morning, simply saying, “Instagram Removed My Pro-Life Comic as ‘Hate Speech’,” along with a link to a piece published on his new site, the Christian Daily Reporter, detailing the incident.
Instagram Removed My Pro-Life Comic as ‘Hate Speech’ https://t.co/x2DU6nlQuo pic.twitter.com/PLQUlOlAvv
— Adam Ford (@Adam4d) April 10, 2019
“Your Post Has Been Deleted,” read the large text atop Instagram’s message.
“We want to keep Instagram a safe place for everyone, and we ask that you treat other members of the community with respect,” Instagram told Ford.
The message proceeded to explain that the company’s community guidelines require that all posts that “attack anyone based on who they are” or include “specific threats of physical harm, theft or vandalism” be removed.
Ford battled back in a piece on the Christian Daily Reporter, questioning how Instagram staff could misconstrue his comic as somehow threatening or hateful.
“There is no way any human being could believe my comic is promoting slavery, since the two women talking are clearly identified as living 200 years ago, and the woman on the right is clearly the ‘bad guy’,” Ford said.
The piece included the entirety of the original comic — which likened arguments in a debate between two 19th-century women to current arguments made in the ongoing American abortion debate — and Ford’s call for readers to decide for themselves whether his musings were hateful.
“Read the entire comic and try to ponder how in the world it could be considered ‘hate speech’,” Ford said.
“I am hardly the first person to espouse the belief (and hope) that one day society will look back on abortion with the same mortified disbelief we now have when we consider our country’s history of institutionalized chattel slavery,” Ford continued. “Millions and millions of pro-life Americans — of all races — see the heartbreaking similarities between abortion-on-demand and the forced enslavement of human beings.”
A recent update to the original Christian Daily Reporter piece indicates that his comic has since been returned to Instagram.
However, according to Ford, no one from Instagram has reached out to him about the event since the initial removal message.
In the light of the event, one of Ford’s primary concerns seems to be what he considers a double-standard in the way social media and tech companies have handled conservative and progressive content in recent years.
Ford closed by begging the question, “If I had published the exact same comic, but instead used it to promote abortion (i.e. ‘without abortion rights, women cannot attain full equal personhood’ — an argument used on the left), would it have been removed as ‘hate speech’?”
“I think we all know the answer to that,” Ford said.
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