Facebook says removal of Alabama governor’s campaign was not based on Biden comments

Facebook said that the brief unpublishing of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s (R) campaign page was not based on posts on the page, including those involving comments on President Biden’s latest COVID-19 mandate for businesses, Alabama.com reported.

In an emailed statement to The Hill, a Facebook spokesperson said that Ivey’s campaign page was “mistakenly restricted for less than an hour.”

 “When we learned of our mistake, the page was quickly restored,” the Facebook spokesperson said. 

Ivey’s campaign team confirmed that its page was unpublished by the social media platform due to a violation of a community standard.

Ivey joined other GOP-led governors last week in saying that it won’t follow Biden’s new mandate which requires private business with more than 100 employees to require COVID-19 vaccinations or face weekly testing. 

“Evidently, they’re upset that I said I’m standing in the way of President Biden to protect Alabamians from this outrageous overreach by the federal government,” Ivey said in a statement. 

“If big tech thinks they can silence us and that I won’t fight back, then honey, they haven’t met me. They have another thing coming. I’m not backing down. I never will,” Ivey added. “We’re fighting Washington. We’ll fight big tech, too.”

Ivey’s campaign team called Facebook’s statement a “nonsense excuse,” Alabama.com noted. 

The Hill has reached out to Ivey’s office comment.

–Updated 3:30 p.m.