By Kerby Anderson

I suppose we shouldn’t really be surprised that various social media outlets are censoring posts they don’t like. Three years ago, officials at the National Religious Broadcasters called my attention to social media censorship. But what has been happening at Facebook I think deserves more attention.

Let me start by saying that this is not a First Amendment issue. Facebook or any other social media outlet is free to decide what they allow to be posted on their platform. When I last wrote about this, I talked about their decision to pull a page by former Governor Mike Huckabee calling for “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.” Later the page was reinstated. But now more and more people notice that their posts disappear.

The problem is the fact that Facebook pulls content supposedly because it is “hateful, threatening, or obscene.” It can also be pulled if the content “attacks an individual or group.” If one of these criteria is met, then I think we could all agree with their decision. But their rules seem based more on ideology than on any objective criteria. They also threaten that if you are deemed to be in continued violation, Facebook will disable your account.

You can search for articles by people who found themselves in violation of Facebook’s policies but were never told which policy was violated. And some believe these policies are subjective and always changing.

Many countries (like China) censor various social media with the tacit approval from the online companies. On an open microphone, the Facebook CEO was overheard assuring the German Chancellor that they would remove anti-immigrant posts about the refugee crisis.

Be careful what you post on Facebook. The overseers might decide it violates their subjective policy and pull it down. Do it again, and they might pull your account.