Facebook is moving to demonetize the Babylon Bee

Labeling the Bee’s content as “misinformation” got Facebook sued, so now it has created a separate category for satire and placed it in it “hate speech” folder.

(UPDATE: MailChimp just “accidentally” canceled the Bee’s account. Now, back to Facebook):

PJ Media: “Last week, Facebook announced that it would clarify the “satire exception” to its “Hate Speech Community Standard.” While this is welcome news for the expansion of content on Facebook, the platform also suggested it would act as a kind of satire police, ruling out certain kinds of satire that “punch down” or communicates “hateful ideas.” Almost as if on cue, Slate published an article on Tuesday attacking The Babylon Bee for — you guessed it — ‘punching down.’

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Facebook pledged to implement “a new satire framework, which our teams will use for evaluating potential satire exceptions. Regional teams will be able to provide satire assessments.”

Facebook previously began to develop a framework for humor and satire, including “over 20 engagements with academic experts, journalists, comedians, representatives of satirical publications, and advocates for freedom of expression.”

The discussion of “punching down” came in this context:

Stakeholders noted that humor and satire are highly subjective across people and cultures, underscoring the importance of human review by individuals with cultural context. Stakeholders also told us that “intent is key,” though it can be tough to assess. Further, true satire does not “punch down”: the target of humorous or satirical content is often an indicator of intent. And if content is simply derogatory, not layered, complex, or subversive, it is not satire. Indeed, humor can be an effective mode of communicating hateful ideas. (emphasis added)

Facebook made this announcement last Thursday. This Tuesday, Slate published an article seemingly encouraging Facebook to go after The Babylon Bee. Slate’s Parker J. Bach rightly explained that the Bee’s satire is not “misinformation,” the reporter claimed that conservatives are more vulnerable to misinformation and conspiracy theories because they see the legacy media as untrustworthy.

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[Slate’s] Bach also suggested that the Bee uses the wrong kind of satire:

The site has a nasty tendency to punch down with humor parts of its audience finds “refreshingly politically incorrect.” The site is often “ironically” misogynistic, as when it “defended” the place of women soldiers in the American military by reporting how “they don’t throw grenades well, so the enemy will never know what to expect” and how “you can pay them way less, which gives you more money for weapons and ammo.” The site is also frequently antagonistic toward the LGBTQIA+ community, with quizzes like “What Gender Are You” (Spoiler alert: the only possible answers are “man” and “woman,” with the outcome solely determined by the question “What chromosomes do you have?”) and countless “identifies as” jokes—for example, “Man Identifies as Woman Just Long Enough to Voice Valid Opinion on Abortion.”