Facebook Demonetizes Satire Site Babylon Bee, Claims Monty Python Spoof ‘Incites Violence’

Facebook is demonetizing the Christian, political satire page “The Babylon Bee” after they published an article satirizing Sen. Mazie Hirono’s comments during the Amy Coney Barrett hearings in a fictional depiction.

The Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon announced the demonetization on Tuesday in a tweet, claiming that the big tech company pulled down the article based on a “regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie.”

“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,” he wrote. “They say this article ‘incites violence.’ It’s literally a regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie!”

 

Dillon pointed out the absurdity of Facebook’s critique.

“In what universe does a fictional quote as part of an obvious joke constitute a genuine incitement to violence?” he asked. “How does context not come into play here? They’re asking us to edit the article and not speak publicly about internal content reviews. Oops, did I just tweet this?”

The article, headlined “Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch,” uses humor to suggest a fictional depiction of Hirono thinks Barrett is a witch and should be weighed against a duck.

“In addition to being a Senator, I am also quite wise in the ways of science. Everyone knows witches burn because they are made of wood,” the satirical version of Hirono says. “I think I read that somewhere. Wood floats, and so do ducks– so logically, if Amy Coney Barrett weighs as much as this duck I found in the reflection pool outside, she is a witch and must be burned.”

The article goes on to describe the obviously fictional and ridiculous response by the fake judiciary committee, claiming that “congressional aides brought in the bathroom scale from Jerry Nadler’s office,” while “Democrat senators nodded in solemn approval while the Republicans yelled and pounded on their desks a bunch before pouncing and booking interviews with Tucker Carlson.”

The Bee has had multiple censorship run-ins with big tech and media companies over their content in the past.

In August, Twitter banned the Bee’s page without warning.

While the big tech company claimed the ban was an accident, the suspension came at the same time Twitter purged its site of “several accounts that tend to mock the oppressiveness of woke culture by pretending to espouse extreme versions of leftist ideology.”

 

The Bee has also gone head to head with the so-called fact-checking site Snopes over the content in their articles.

While the Bee operates satirically and even has its own non-satirical news page, “Not The Bee,” which is separate from its comedic content, Snopes regularly issues fact-checks about their articles, proclaiming them to be false or misleading.