A new conservative book publisher offering biographies of luminaries such as president Ronald Reagan, famed economist Thomas Sowell and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, has been stifled by Facebook, which “permanently disabled” the ads account of the neophyte publisher, claiming Heroes of Liberty, which launched on November 14, violated Facebook’s rules against “Low Quality or Disruptive Content.”
“Facebook originally locked the ads account on Dec. 23, and after Heroes of Liberty appealed the ruling, the company permanently disabled the account,” Fox Business reported on Monday. Facebook’s statement read, “This ad account, its ads and some of its advertising assets are disabled because it didn’t comply with our policy on Low Quality or Disruptive Content.”
Heroes of Liberty, whose website is here, launched an appeal prompting Facebook to reply, “After a final review of this ad account, we confirmed it didn’t comply with our Advertising Policies or other standards.”
The message continued, “You can no longer advertise with this ad account and its ads and assets will remain disabled. This is our final decision.”
Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz slammed Facebook, noting, “When conservatives start independent publishing outlets and platforms, #BigTech companies like Facebook now work to destroy them. This latest example is particularly galling.”
When conservatives start independent publishing outlets and platforms, #BigTech companies like Facebook now work to destroy them. This latest example is particularly galling. https://t.co/EkT41avNII
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 3, 2022
Former GOP Wisconsin Governor and current YAF president Scott Walker echoed, “Another glaring example of cancel culture. The left does not want to compete in a battle of ideas, so they try to shut us out.”
Another glaring example of cancel culture. The left does not want to compete in a battle of ideas, so they try to shut us out. https://t.co/oxpH6RUptc
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 3, 2022
MEMRI vice-president Alberto Miguel Fernandez: “How far will the Big Tech Oligarchy go in exercising ideological hegemony? When Facebook bans a publishing house because it prints admiring bios (for kids) of Reagan, Thomas Sowell and Amy Coney Barrett.”
How far will the Big Tech Oligarchy go in exercising ideological hegemony? When Facebook bans a publishing house because it prints admiring bios (for kids) of Reagan, Thomas Sowell and Amy Coney Barrett. https://t.co/JYW93iWBzN
— Alberto Miguel Fernandez (@AlbertoMiguelF5) January 3, 2022
Heroes of Liberty editor and board member Bethany Mandel told Fox Business, “The question is: is a children’s biography of Ronald Reagan no longer permissible on Facebook? We don’t know. But apparently promoting one may well kill a business.
“We began investing in Facebook four months before we launched our first book,” she noted. “We invested most of our marketing budget on the platform, and now our budget (the money we’ve already spent), as well as our assets and data are gone. Marketing-wise we are back in square one, financially it’s even more challenging.”
“We are not in politics; we are in the business of creating beautiful stories about great people that will entertain children and give them life lessons,” she continued. “To cancel children’s books because they celebrate American values that 90% of Americans believe in isn’t even anti-conservative bias, it’s anti-American. Pure madness.”
“There was a small but noisy group of responders to our ads who didn’t like the fact we published books about Ronald Reagan, Thomas Sowell and Amy Coney Barret; people we called Heroes of Liberty,” Mandel stated. “They made nasty comments, especially about Reagan, and about us for publishing these books and even shared their desire to burn them.”
“It’s very likely those same people reported to Facebook that our content is disturbing, because it doesn’t sit well with their radical worldview,” she noted. “These are the same people who riot and take down statues of our founding fathers in the real world, and they want to strip us of our ability to honor our Heroes in the digital sphere and in children’s books. … Our problem is that it seems that Facebook went with the mob judgment call and not with common sense.”
Mandel concluded, “We learned our lesson, and won’t risk building our business relying on the whims of Big Tech again…We are very happy with our initial decision to create a subscription model that will allow us to create a more meaningful one-on-one connection with families that can’t be disrupted by a censor.”
The Daily Wire reported in November of Heroes of Liberty:
While the initial release will feature Reagan, Sowell, and Coney Barrett, starting in 2022, a new book will be released each month featuring a different “American hero.” Upcoming books will feature John Wayne, Margaret Thatcher, Mark Twain, Douglas MacArthur, Alexander Hamilton, Rush Limbaugh, and others.
According to the publisher, the “goal is to provide parents who are concerned with the increasingly leftist indoctrination and wokeness that have taken over our educational institutions with a wholesome patriotic alternative to read with their children.”
Mandel said in a previous interview with Fox Business that current children’s books are “trying to sell an agenda,” such as Ibram X. Kendi’s “Antiracist Baby,” adding “The best children’s books are inevitably the old books because the production value has decreased, along with the messaging. … Children’s literature is one of those things that people realized this is garbage and indoctrination, but there’s never been an alternative that’s not garbage itself or indoctrination itself.”