Facebook reverses course after ‘permanently’ locking account of conservative children’s book publisher

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Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has reinstated the ads account of the conservative children’s book publisher, Heroes of Liberty, after it previously told the publisher that its account had been “permanently disabled.”

Facebook originally said that Heroes of Liberty – which has published books about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, former President Ronald Reagan and author Thomas Sowell – violated the company’s rules against “Low Quality or Disruptive Content.” Facebook originally locked the ads account on Dec. 23, and after Heroes of Liberty appealed the ruling, the company permanently disabled the account.

“I wanted to let you know that the ads account was disabled in error and has been restored, Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for Meta, told FOX Business on Monday.

“They proactively reached out to several members of Congress and told *them* it was a mistake and we’re back online. Those offices told us,” Heroes of Liberty editor and board member Bethany Mandel confirmed to FOX Business on Monday. “They didn’t reach out to us.”

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“This ad account, its ads and some of its advertising assets are disabled because it didn’t comply with our policy on Low Quality or Disruptive Content,” Facebook said in a message disabling the account on Dec. 23.

After Heroes of Liberty appealed, Facebook sent another message. “After a final review of this ad account, we confirmed it didn’t comply with our Advertising Policies or other standards,” the message reads. “You can no longer advertise with this ad account and its ads and assets will remain disabled. This is our final decision.”

Facebook message suspending Heroes of Liberty, photo courtesy Heroes of Liberty.

Heroes of Liberty aims to produce high-quality children’s books promoting American values. The publisher opened shop on Nov. 9 and officially launched on Nov. 14. Back in July, it began investing resources to build a brand on Facebook.

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Heroes of Liberty used the ads account to promote and sell the books. During its last month on the platform – between Nov. 23 and Dec. 23 – the account promoted 68 ads, and 95.2% of the money spent on ads in this period went to ads that were ranked “average” or “above average” in Facebook’s quality score. Only three ads were rated below “average,” according to Heroes of Liberty.

Heroes of Liberty Facebook ad, photo courtesy Heroes of Liberty.

Mandel hesitated to describe what happened as an example of anti-conservative bias on the part of Facebook when FOX Business reached out Sunday.

“We are not in politics, we are in the business of creating beautiful stories about great people that will entertain children and give them life lessons,” she said. “To cancel children’s books because they celebrate American values that 90% of Americans believe in isn’t even anti-conservative bias, it’s anti-American. Pure madness.”

Mandel suggested that Facebook caved to a vocal minority of users who claimed that Heroes of Liberty was disruptive.

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“There was a small but noisy group of responders to our ads who didn’t like the fact we published books about Ronald Reagan, Thomas Sowell and Amy Coney Barret; people we called Heroes of Liberty,” she told FOX Business. “They made nasty comments, especially about Reagan, and about us for publishing these books and even shared their desire to burn them.”