At one time, the Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC, championed the civil rights struggle. In fact, according to CBN News, the SPLC is said to have contributed to putting the Ku Klux Klan out of business. Membership in this offensive organization used to number in the millions. Now, only a few thousand people are affiliated with it.
Unfortunately, the SPLC has transformed its perception of what constitutes a hate group over the years. Today, an alarming number of targeted groups are traditional Christian, pro-family, and conservative ones. Disturbingly, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter are partnering with this anti-Christian law center according to an investigation launched by the Daily Caller News Foundation, DCNF.
The SPLC still labels itself as a “civil rights” watchdog that keeps an eye out for “hate groups and other extremists.” Ruchika Budhraja, a Facebook spokeswoman, informed DCNF that SPLC is only one of multiple “external experts and organizations” the social media giant utilizes to “inform our hate speech policies.” Budhraja insisted her company also seeks advice from other organizations affiliated with differing political views. Facebook’s spokeswoman maintained that the social media corporation doesn’t always rely on SPLC’s judgment. To reiterate her point, she referred to an SPLC complaint against Facebook earlier this year. The complaint related to the SPLC’s belief Facebook was tolerating too many organizations and posts it felt were “anti-Muslim.”
Google allegedly utilizes the SPLC to be its “Trusted Flagger” for YouTube videos. This partnership permits the SPLC to both provide input on YouTube’s algorithms and pin point information YouTube moderators should check out. Twitter refers to the SPLC as a “safety partner” that assists in eliminating “hateful conduct and harassment.” Facebook, Google/YouTube, and Twitter all purport to be politically-unbiased platforms. However, they’ve recently all been accused of discriminating against conservatives in numerous ways.
DNCF reported that Amazon relies on the SPLC the most. A spokeswoman for Amazon said, “We remove organizations that the SPLC deems as ineligible.” The Amazon Smile initiative gives customers the opportunity to select charities to receive a small portion of the money from their purchases. Unfortunately, Amazon permits the SPLC to arbitrarily exclude organizations from this program.
In May of 2018, Amazon booted Alliance Defending Freedom, ADF, a religious liberty advocate, from the Amazon Smile platform based on a recommendation from the SPLC. Unbelievably, Amazon customers can still donate money to the Nation of Islam and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Even the SPLC contends that the Nation of Islam is anti-Semitic. Personnel from the Council on American-Islamic Relations have been associated with numerous terrorism cases.
Amazon’s spokeswoman contended Amazon utilizes the SPLC’s guidance because the conglomerate doesn’t “want to be biased whatsoever.” However, Amazon apparently ignores the SPLC’s own biases. In a statement to LifeSite News, Amazon wrote, “Charitable organizations must meet the requirements outlined in our participation agreement to be eligible for AmazonSmile. Organizations that engage in, support, encourage, or promote intolerance, hate, terrorism, violence, money laundering, or other illegal activities are not eligible.”
The statement went on to read, “If at any point an organization violates this agreement, its eligibility will be revoked. Since 2013, Amazon has relied on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Southern Poverty Law Center to help us make these determinations. While this system has worked well, we do listen to and consider the feedback of customers and other stakeholders, which we will do here as well.”
In 2014, the FBI under President Obama quit using the SPLC as a resource on its hate crime webpage. In 2017, the Pentagon under President Trump dumped the overtly biased law center too. But, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, some of the most recognizable and successful companies in the United States today, continue to allow the SPLC to determine what users can see and say.
Writing for the Federalist, Joy Pullmann said, “Because the SPLC depends on racism, violence, and division for its revenue and legitimacy, they have reason to want more of these terrible things, or at least the appearance of more. Their vested interest is not in solving and reducing these social blights, but in maximizing and perpetuating them. All the more reason polite society should starve their fire-stoking of the oxygen of attention.”
~ 1776 Christian
