Behind The Mask Of Facebook by Kent Heckenlively and Ryan Hartwig

Ryan Hartwig may be one of the most important figures in American history.

Hired by Cognizant as a content moderator for Facebook, Ryan Hartwig began by keeping gruesome images of cartel violence in Mexico off the platform. This seemed like a righteous mission and yet, as time went by, it became clear the Facebook bosses saw an even bigger threat, Americans of a different political viewpoint.

Ryan watched in horror as Facebook made a monumental shift after the 2016 elections, hiring thousands of US-based content moderators with one mission, to favor leftist viewpoints while suppressing the speech of conservatives. Ryan describes more than forty examples of such behavior, and it will radically rewrite your understanding of the past four years as you learn how the news regarding prominent individuals like Greta Thunberg, Alyssa Milano, and Don Lemon was censored to remove legitimate criticism of them.

Viral videos of Trump supporters being attacked were removed from the platform, and moderators were told to look for signs of hate speech in Trumps’ State of the Union addresses, while at the same time allowing vicious attacks against police, pro-lifers, and straight white males.

As America’s de-facto town square, Facebook was systematically suppressing free speech, which has traditionally been our country’s greatest weapon to combat extremism from either side. Ryan knew he had to take action, and contacted Project Veritas, eventually filming many of these actions with a hidden camera for the world to see. We need to stand up against tech tyranny and corporations that attempt to control our conversations, our news, and our political narratives. Reading Behind the Mask of Facebook: A Whistleblower’s Shocking Story of Big Tech Bias and Censorship​ is the first step to learning how to confront and defeat this tyranny.