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Pinterest Labels Live Action Content As Pornography — Then Bans The Pro-Life Group From Pinterest

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Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter
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Pinterest banned pro-life advocacy group Live Action on Tuesday after labeling Live Action’s media as pornography, saying the group spreads misinformation.

A whistleblower at Pinterest revealed to Project Veritas that Pinterest has been monitoring and suppressing Live Action content in attempts to censor the pro-life group. A Pinterest staffer purposefully added LiveAction.org to a Pinterest “pornography block list,” Live Action told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Live Action also said that Pinterest users have reported for months that they experience difficulty in pinning Live Action’s content. Live Action conducted experiments testing whether other pro-life pins or Planned Parenthood pins were being shown the same censorship and found that was not the case.

Live Action received an email early Tuesday morning announcing that they were banned from Pinterest.

“Your account was permanently suspended because it went against our policies on misinformation,” the email read. “We don’t allow harmful information on Pinterest. That includes medical misinformation and conspiracies that turn individuals and facilities into targets for harassment and violence.

Photo Courtesy of Live Action

Photo Courtesy of Live Action

“We have more questions than answers about Pinterest’s censorship of Live Action and the pro-life message,” said Live Action founder and president Lila Rose in a statement provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Based on the evidence provided, it appears that Pinterest intentionally added ‘LiveAction.org’ to a ‘pornography’ blocklist in an effort to suppress our pro-life content from being shared on the platform.”

“By secretly applying the label of ‘pornography’ to Live Action’s pro-life content, Pinterest demonstrates a concerted effort to sideline a leading pro-life organization the only way they knew how,” Rose added.

The Live Action founder said Pinterest’s censorship is no mistake, and pointed out that the content Live Action shares on Pinterest is largely inspirational messages to pregnant women, ultrasounds, and medically accurate information on abortion procedures.

Pinterest told TheDCNF that labeling Live Action content as porn was an accident, and that Pinterest aimed to action against the pro-life group for misinformation related to conspiracies and anti-vaccination advice.

“LiveAction.org was actioned for misinformation related to conspiracies and anti-vaccination advice, and not porn,” Pinterest told TheDCNF.

“Sometimes our internal tools have legacy names for the technology that enforces some of our policies. This technology was named years ago to combat porn, and has since expanded to a variety of content despite retaining its original internal name. We are updating our internal labeling to make this clear.”

Live Action says that both YouTube and Twitter have censored their content as well. The pro-life group said Friday that Twitter repeatedly censors their content and will not allow them to run ads. (RELATED: Jack Dorsey Says Abortion Bans Are Bad For Business)

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey joined other business owners Monday in signing a New York Times ad protesting restrictive abortion legislation and saying abortion bans are bad for business. Rose says that this conduct from Dorsey is no surprise in light of Twitter’s censorship of Live Action.

Editor’s note: This article previously stated that a whistle blower told Live Action of Pinterest’s actions. The whistle blower told Project Veritas. The article has been updated to reflect the change.

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