Facebook Bans Ads from Pro-Gun Newspaper
A suburban New York City newspaper known for its support of the Second Amendment, has been banned from purchasing Facebook ads, the paper’s editor charged.
Dylan Skriloff, the editor of the Rockland County Times, told Fox News that Facebook will no longer allow them to purchase advertisements to promote their stories.
“We’ve been giving them a good amount of business,” Skriloff said. “I don’t really appreciate getting cut off by someone I’m doing business with without an explanation.”
The weekly newspaper, published since 1888, makes no bones about being a conservative voice in the northern New York City suburbs.
Their competition – The Journal News – created a national firestorm of controversy when they printed the names and addresses of citizens who owned gun permits. It was that decision that prompted The Rockland County Times to take a vocal stand in support of the Second Amendment.
“We were outraged like a lot of people around here,” Skriloff said. “We immediately criticized them.”
And Skriloff suspects their pro-gun stance could be behind their Facebook troubles.
“I believe in the Second Amendment,” he said. “It must be respected and not tread on as some people are trying to do.”
The Rockland County Times had been paying Facebook around $10 per story to generate traffic to their website. About a week ago the ads promoting their stories were rejected without explanation.
“We’re on some kind of a list that they won’t accept our ads now,” he said. “Most of their users don’t pay anything but we’re paying for ads and this is how they treat us. I really don’t appreciate it.”
Skriloff said he emailed Facebook asking for an explanation but no one replied. Facebook did not return calls from Fox News.
“I certainly got the feeling they didn’t like what we were posting – maybe it was too far to the right for them,” he wondered.
Ironically, the Rockland County Times’ troubles happened about the same time another conservative website came under fire.
Facebook later apologized for threatening to shut down “Chicks on the Right” after they posted a message critical of the White House. Click here to read “Facebook Threatens Conservative Website.”
Skriloff said he doesn’t have proof that Facebook is intentionally targeting conservatives – but he does harbor suspicious.
“I would call this censorship,” he said.
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