Facebook blocked Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Chad Prather from accessing his page on the site only eight days before the primary election.
Prather told the Washington Examiner the ban resulted from a months-old comment discussing the events of Jan 6. A commentator, who Prather confirmed tends to “spam” his page and “comments nonstop,” called the events of the day an “insurrection. ”
Prather responded by pointing out that even the FBI didn’t classify the event as an insurrection, further accusing the commentator of using “victimhood” in her favor.
As a result, Facebook banned him for “bullying.”
Facebook notified Prather he was banned from his page for seven days starting Feb 21. The primary election is March 1.
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“They silenced my campaign on Facebook,” Prather said. “This is illegal. This is interference. This is absolutely a travesty to the political process of free and fair elections.”
Prather confirmed to the Washington Examiner he has been banned from Facebook in some capacity about a dozen times before.
“We know that this is a targeted thing,” Prather said. “Especially when Greg Abbott, the governor of [Texas] is the no. 2 subsidizers of Facebook in the nation. So that Facebook will do business in Texas, he subsidizes them, brings them here. They’re in bed together.”
The page in question is not solely a campaign page but also his personal page. Prather told the Washington Examiner it was the page he used the most for campaigning, but it existed before he decided to run.
Prather is a Blaze TV host who boasts himself as the only nonpolitician running for governor. Among the Republican candidates, seven others are running, including incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.
On Twitter, Prather has about 238,900 followers. He shares his Blaze TV segments on YouTube, with his channel toting 308,000 subscribers. His videos have collectively received 46 million views.
Facebook is its largest platform, with over 1 million followers on its main page. His last post ahead of the ban was on Feb 20. He has four other pages he uses for various other reasons. Prather was banned from posting on any of them. The administrators on his pages are still allowed to post, however.
Texas currently has a data center set to be finished this year. It reportedly cost $1.5 billion to build the facility that currently employs 150 people. In return, the city of Fort Worth provided the tech giant with a $147 million tax-exemption deal on real and business personal property taxes that will last 20 years. Abbott was at its groundbreaking in 2015.
Today, Abbott is reportedly lobbying for a second data center. This revelation comes from a letter addressed to Attorney General Ken Paxton from Justin Hoover, an attorney representing Facebook. Hoover writes that Texas is “one of several states being considered” by Facebook. Together with Abbott’s Economic Development and Tourism office, the platform has already “engaged in preliminary discussions” about “possible site locations and related economic incentives.”
If Texas houses the new center, it would be the only state with two data centers. There are 15 nationwide.
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The GOP candidate has filed a petition in Tarrant County in Texas to get reinstated to his page. Prather admitted it was a symbolic gesture.
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