Update:
SuperTalk Mississippi News has received the following message from Facebook after our dispute:
“After reviewing your appeal, your Page SuperTalk Mississippi News has been published. This means it can now be viewed publicly.
The Facebook Team”
Original Report:
The fractured relationship between ‘big tech’ and the media is no secret, and this morning, SuperTalk Mississippi News was notified that our Facebook page was abruptly ‘unpublished’ after sharing a post from Governor Tate Reeves regarding new first-dose vaccination appointments becoming available.
Shortly after sharing the post, we received the following message regarding the status of our account.
Without any specific explanation as to why our page was unpublished, we were given to option disagree with the decision. After selecting that option, a brief message appeared explaining that we may not even get the chance to follow up with Facebook due to a diminished number of “reviewers” that seemingly have the ability to shut down our page with no given reason.
Governor Reeves, recognizing the importance of getting accurate information out to the public, called on the social media outlet to restore our page.
Unbelievable! Please fix quickly, @Facebook. Local news outlets like @SuperTalk are essential, and they should not be punished by big tech companies for simply sharing important vaccine information! https://t.co/XKSAN1YNxk
— Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) February 2, 2021
Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who continues to be outspoken against social media censorship, said Facebook should not have the power to silence anyone.
While we attempt to appeal the decision unilaterally made by Facebook, SuperTalk News will continue to publish content to our website supertalk.fm and share them on our Twitter account @SuperTalkNews.
