#BreakUpBigTech: Elizabeth Warren says Facebook just proved her point
Elizabeth Warren could not have asked for a better illustration for her point.
The US senator and Democratic candidate for president took aim at Facebook on Monday evening after the social network briefly blocked her campaign from running advertisements that just happened to call for breaking up Facebook.
“Curious why I think FB has too much power?”, Warren said on Twitter. “Let’s start with their ability to shut down a debate over whether FB has too much power. Thanks for restoring my posts. But I want a social media marketplace that isn’t dominated by a single censor. #BreakUpBigTech.”
The dustup began when Politico reported that Facebook had blocked a number of Facebook ads that promoted Warren’s newly announced plan to break up major tech companies, which she argues have become too powerful.
“Three companies have vast power over our economy and our democracy,” the ads read, according to Politico. “Facebook, Amazon, and Google. We all use them. But in their rise to power, they’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field in their favor.”
The idea that Facebook might be censoring political speech contrary to its interests proved irresistible to many Facebook critics, but the company said there was a much more mundane explanation.
“We removed the ads because they violated our policies against use of our corporate logo,” a spokesperson told Politico. “In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads.”
Facebook’s policies limit the extent to which advertisers can reference Facebook or Instagram in the text or imagery.
Whether Facebook’s brief censorship “shut down a debate” is questionable: numerous other Warren advertisements with a similar anti-tech message remained active during the brief block.
Warren has staked out an aggressive stance on regulating major tech companies. After unveiling her plan for antitrust action on Friday, she appeared at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, over the weekend, where she voiced her anti-monopolist message before a generally techheavy crowd.
“This only affects tech monopolists,” she said of her plan, according to Variety. “Less monopoly profits? Boo hoo.”