Dear Readers,
On Tuesday, the European Union (EU) announced a new online speech code to be enforced by four major tech companies, including Facebook and YouTube.
On Wednesday, Facebook deleted the account of Ingrid Carlqvist, Gatestone's Swedish expert.
It's no coincidence.
Ingrid had posted our latest video to her Facebook feed -- called "Sweden's Migrant Rape Epidemic." As you can see, Ingrid calmly lays out the facts and statistics, all of which are meticulously researched.
It's a video version of this research paper that Gatestone published last year. The video has gone viral -- racking up more than 80,000 views in its first two days.
But the EU is quite candid: it is applying a political lens to their censorship, and it now has teams of political informants -- with the Orwellian title of "trusted reporters" -- to report any cases of "xenophobia" or "hate speech" to Facebook for immediate deletion.
It's political censorship. It's outrageous. And it's contrary to our western values of free speech, political freedom and the separation of mosque and state. But in another way, it's a tremendous compliment -- the world's censors think that Gatestone Institute's work is important enough and persuasive enough that it needs to be silenced.
Well, not if we have anything to say about it. After enormous grassroots pressure from Gatestone's readers, the Swedish media started reporting on Facebook's heavy-handed censorship. It backfired, and Facebook went into damage-control mode. They put Ingrid's account back up -- without any explanation or apology. Ironically, their censorship only gave Ingrid's video more attention.
Facebook and the EU have backed down -- for now. But they're deadly serious about stopping ideas they don't like. They'll be back.
So what should we do? I think there is only one thing we can do: continue to produce our well-researched reports, and to expand our online presence with even more videos!
As you know, just last week we started releasing high-quality original videos, hosted by our Gatestone experts. Our first four videos have already been watched by more than 150,000 people!
It's a great way to make our research come alive -- and as Ingrid's viral video shows, to get our ideas noticed.
So I want Gatestone's talented experts to make more videos -- a lot more! We need to win the battle of ideas. Can you help?
Each video costs us approximately $500 to produce. But as Facebook's attack on us shows, they're worth every penny.
Will you help us do that?
If you can sponsor one video, for $500, that would be a powerful statement of your support for our ideas -- and your resistance to the Facebook/EU censorship. But even a $50 gift would be so helpful -- if just 100 Gatestone supporters chipped in $50, that's enough to produce ten more powerful video presentations -- any one of which could go viral too!
Facebook and the European Union thought they could shut us up. I want to prove them wrong. Please click here, to help us fight back. Do it for Ingrid!
Yours truly,
Nina Rosenwald
President and Founder, Gatestone Institute
P.S. Click here to see all of our YouTube videos so far. I want to do so many more, and with more of our experts. It's a great way to spread our message, especially in the age of short, shareable videos. Please consider contributing $50, $500 or whatever you can!
P.P.S. We've never been censored this way before. I think it means we're making a difference. What do you think?
Gatestone Institute is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, Federal Tax ID #454724565.
Contributions to Gatestone Institute are tax deductible in the U.S. to the full extent of the law.
