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Dying laughing: Facebook demonetizes satirical website Babylon Bee for 'inciting violence' with Monty Python joke
Facebook has demonetized Christian satire site the Babylon Bee, saying even after a manual review that an article which used a popular Monty Python bit to skewer Senate questioning of Trump’s Supreme Court pick “incites violence.”
The social media behemoth told Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon that it “stood by” the decision to not only remove the article but demonetize the Bee’s entire page on Tuesday, insisting the piece – headlined “Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against a Duck To See if She Is a Witch” – “incites violence,” Dillon revealed on Twitter.
So after a manual review, Facebook says they stand by their decision to pull down this article and demonetize our page. I'm not kidding. They say this article "incites violence." It's literally a regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie!https://t.co/U9B6tTOj6N
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) October 20, 2020
Facebook also ordered the Bee to edit its article, which described Hawaii Senator Hirono subjecting Supreme Court nominee Barrett to the deliberately nonsensical “witch test” from the classic comedy film ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, and “not [to] speak publicly about internal content reviews,” Dillon continued, concluding with a cheeky “Oops, did I just tweet this?”
A Black Lives Matter leader said that if change doesn't happen, they'll "burn down this system." That's allowed on Facebook. You can quote it. You can link to it. But a Monty Python joke about burning a witch at the stake? That's incitement to violence.
