Pinterest has permanently suspended pro-life advocacy group Live Action and accused the organisation of spreading “harmful misinformation” that could “have immediate detrimental effects on a Pinner’s health or public safety.”
A whistleblower at Pinterest told Project Veritas the social media company were suppressing and censoring pro-life and Christian content prior to Live Action’s ban.
After reviewing Pinterest’s “Sensitive Terms List”, Project Veritas discovered that Christianity-related terms like “Christian Easter” and “Bible verses” were marked as “brand unsafe.” The whistleblower explained that such terms are removed from Pinterest’s auto-complete search results, while other material is either “hidden” or “silently removed.”
According to the informant, a staffer at Pinterest intentionally added Live Action’s website to a “pornography block list”, making it impossible for users to link any pins to Live Action’s website.
BREAKING @Project_Veritas: Tech Insider Blows Whistle on How Pinterest Listed Top Pro-Life Site as Porn, "Bible Verses" Censored — Watch full video and the docs: https://t.co/hePSHX3BVn #LifeCensored pic.twitter.com/PT52F9AeNH
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 11, 2019
Alison Centofante, Director of External Affairs at Live Action said: “Because ‘LiveAction.org’ was added to the list of pornographic sites, users cannot create pins that link to ‘LiveAction.org.’ Live Action has the largest and most active online following in the pro-life movement, with over 3.3 million followers.
“What exactly is Pinterest attempting to block?” Centofante added. “Inspirational messages to pregnant mothers, ultrasound images showing the science of prenatal development, and images saying women deserve better than abortion industry leader Planned Parenthood.”
Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action tweeted: “Pinterest allows abortion clinics to freely post ads for mail-order abortions, like the chemical pill RU-486. But they banned all Live Action’s pro-life posts today, saying it was because we have ‘detrimental effects on health and public safety.’”
.@Pinterest allows abortion clinics to freely post ads for mail-order abortions, like the chemical pill RU-486.
But they banned all @LiveAction’s pro-life posts today, saying it was because we may have “detrimental effects on health & public safety.”
What’s banned & NOT banned: pic.twitter.com/0DeOmDkL7G
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) June 11, 2019
Live Action is urging their followers to sign a petition calling on Pinterest to live up to their stated values.
“Pinterest says that their mission is to ‘help empower people to discover things that they love,’ but despite the fact that millions of people love babies and the pro-life cause, they are censoring Live Action’s life-affirming messages.
“Pinterest was suppressing pro-life content by secretly and intentionally adding Live Action to a ‘pornography block list.’ And now, Pinterest followed this suppression by outright censoring Live Action by permanently suspending their account, labeling their defense of the pro-life truth as ‘misinformation.’
“I implore you to live up to the stated values of your company and the spirit of the First Amendment with consistency and end the suppression of opinions affirming life and human dignity, a belief that is held by millions of Americans and Pinterest users,” the petition states.
Project Veritas sat down with the tech insider who blew the whistle on Pinterest’s actions. The full interview can be viewed below.
