Facebook turned down an ad for Republican congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng on Friday, her campaign said, deeming it too graphic for the social media site.
“It is unbelievable that Facebook could have such blatant disregard for the history that so many people, including my own parents, have lived through.” — 16th Congressional District candidate Elizabeth Heng
Elements of the video focused on Heng’s immigrant parents, who survived the atrocities inflicted by the Khmer Rouge communists during and following the 1975 end of the Cambodian Civil War.
The war triggered a refugee crisis with two million Cambodians displaced from rural areas.
You can view the video by clicking on the picture above this story.
Heng Accuses Facebook of Censorship
“It is unbelievable that Facebook could have such blatant disregard for the history that so many people, including my own parents, have lived through,” Heng said in a statement issued by her campaign.
“I’m sure it is shocking for some people to hear about this kind of injustice, but this is reality. This is why I wake up every single day with the fight and determination to have a voice and make a difference in my community.
“Neither Facebook nor any other company in the tech industry get to silence our stories. We’ve seen it over and over again with Republican candidates and organizations. This kind of censorship is an attack on the freedoms that we have as Americans to express what we believe in, and we must hold Facebook accountable.”
Heng’s campaign said it was told by a Facebook representative that the ad contained content too “shocking, disrespectful or sensational” for the platform.
The Ad
Heng’s ad runs 3 minutes, 57 seconds and incorporates footage from television commercials run by the campaign before the primary. Its graphic elements appear in the video’s first 20 seconds.
Heng Is Running Against Costa
Heng is challenging incumbent Democrat Jim Costa for the 16th District seat covering parts of Fresno, Madera, and Merced counties. Costa garnered 53% of the vote in the two-candidate primary.
Avery
August 3, 2018 at 5:18 pm
I’m pretty sure Costa only got 53% of the total vote…
http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2018-primary/sov/82-congress.pdf
Bill McEwen
August 3, 2018 at 5:27 pm
Thanks, Avery. We didn’t use the final number. We will correct it.
Don Rhudy
August 5, 2018 at 11:05 am
I’m surprised that Ms. Heng is surprised that Facebook would not publish her ad. It is too American, too Anti-Communist, too honest. The Facebook people are today’s Marxists.
Gus Jones
August 24, 2018 at 5:03 am
Go back to school or read a dictionary – they are not Marxist. Facebook is the poster child for unbridled capitalism.
But, you are right, the ad was what has become “very American” – tasteless for equating the apparent happiness of her parents long-lasting marriage with piles of dead and the privilege of suffering “great adversity”. And then equating that with her own qualifications to serve all of her constituents.
Francis Ney
August 6, 2018 at 8:54 am
Facistbook deserves to lose Section 230 safe harbor.
Wayne Scholes
August 6, 2018 at 10:37 am
Once again Facebook blocking true, factual and relevant information.
Hoping Miss Heng can appeal and get her ad posted.
Joaquin Torres
August 8, 2018 at 7:29 am
I used to be a staunch Democrat now a proud Independent who will never vote along “Just Party Lines”.
Miss Heng’s views and statements make a lot of sense and Facebook should think twice about what they consider “too shocking, disrespectful or sensational for the platform”.
We currently have all of these issues in the WH.
I also and tired of waiting 14 years to make changes in this valley.
Good luck Miss Heng
Ken Sumner
August 8, 2018 at 1:01 pm
Good luck, Mrs. Heng
Alfin Binney
August 24, 2018 at 5:15 am
So, it would be okay for a Jewish candidate to run campaign ads showing WWII atrocities against Jews in graphic detail? Or for black candidates to run campaign ads showing lynchings, beatings, etc. in graphic detail? Or Asian candidates to graphically show the forced internment camps, land-thefts, sweatshops, etc.? And no problem with an Arab candidate showing in graphic detail the massive toll of US bombs and policies on their parents’ homelands? Or a female candidate showing in graphic detail imprisonments and abuse during the suffragette movement let alone the beatings and rapes that occur on a daily basis? And there are more…No one here would have a problem with any of that, right?