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A Growing and 'Pervasive' Problem: Faith Leaders Fight Back Against Online Censorship

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WASHINGTON – Faith is under attack in America and perhaps no more so than online on sites like Facebook and Google.

Now faith leaders like Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Jerry Johnson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, are doing something about it.

Blackburn herself is a victim of online censorship.

Twitter banned a campaign ad of hers because of language about abortion it deemed "inflammatory."

Hers is just one example of a conservative voice silenced by Silicon Valley.

"They're big tech companies – Google, YouTube, Facebook – really holding themselves out as the virtual public square and come to find out it's really not a public square," Perkins told CBN's Jenna Browder. "It's not open to everybody. We're seeing increasingly where they're beginning to really censor who comes in."

Johnson told CBN it's a growing and "pervasive" problem. 

"Facebook has taken posts from Todd Starnes of Fox News off, Mike Huckabee, Alan West, Carol Swayne, who's a PhD out of Vanderbilt," Johnson charged. "These are political or religious messages they don't like. They just remove the post. Incredible."

The NRB is also taking the fight to Capitol Hill, asking lawmakers to take action.

It's asking for the public's help too and has set up a website where people can report if they've been censored online. 

In Blackburn's case, Twitter eventually backed off its controversial decision and let her keep and pay to promote her ad. 

But that's not to say the same kind of thing won't happen again.

"The first step to securing our freedoms is to use our freedoms," Perkins said. "I think we look at the First Amendment. It's not something that we lock away in a box to protect it. It's something we want to exercise and use it and make it stronger. And so our message to Christians is, live out your faith. Share your faith."

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About The Author

Jenna
Browder

Jenna Browder co-hosts Faith Nation and is a network correspondent for CBN News. She has interviewed many prominent national figures from both sides of the political aisle, including presidents, cabinet secretaries, lawmakers, and other high-ranking officials. Jenna grew up in the small mountain town of Gunnison, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied journalism. Her first TV jobs were at CBS affiliates in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Monroe, Louisiana where she anchored the nightly news. She came to Washington, D.C. in 2016. Getting to cover that year's