PINTEREST CENSORSHIP: Timeline of events leading to the Live Action ban

Yesterday Pinterest permanently blocked pro-life group Live Action from their platform after a whistleblower revealed the social site was censoring the pro-life message. According to a previous Live Action News report, the information came from an “undercover investigation conducted by Project Veritas.” The video, featuring the whistleblower who was fired just hours after its release, shows “inside communications confirming that a top official at Pinterest intentionally added LiveAction.org to the blocked list of pornography websites in February of 2019.” (You can donate to a GoFundMe page set up on behalf of whistleblower Eric Cochran here.)

As time went on, more shocking actions were taken against Live Action and against Project Veritas, for exposing Pinterest’s practices. Watch the video and see a timeline of events below to learn what really happened:

Tech Insider Blows Whistle on How Pinterest Listed Top Pro-Life Site as Porn, “Bible" Term Censored

Project Veritas tweeted yesterday:

 In 48 hours @Pinterest has:

• – Removed @LiveAction from the porn domain block list

• – Added them back on to the list

• – Permanently BANNED their account

• – Sent a statement to Veritas that neglects to refute our findings

• – FIRED our Pinterest insider

• PART 2 coming soon. #lifecensored

May 29, 2019

According to a Project Veritas report, “On May 29th, 2019, Ginet Girmay, a Pinterest employee on the company’s Trust and Safety team, discusses LiveAction.org’s inclusion on the “porn domain block list.” Girmay says “I do not think [LiveAction.org] should be removed…” even though Pinterest “is not currently removing pro-life/pro-choice content.” 

Sunday June 9, 2019

According to a Project Veritas Tweet:

• Sunday: @LiveAction is on @Pinterest porn domain blocklist 

• Monday: Live Action is removed

• This morning: Live Action is permanently de-platformed

• NOW: Live Action is back on the porn domain block list! 

Monday June 10, 2019

Pinterest has LiveAction.org on pornography blocklist. (see image below).

Live Action is on domain blocklist of pornography sites. You can still share images but you cannot create a pin that links to LiveAction.org.

Project Veritas tweeted, “This morning we asked our insider’s #bigtech company for comment. This afternoon we’ve already noticed they’re making changes to their user experience. TOMORROW » get our latest investigation: https://bit.ly/2F1Efem“

Monday, June 10th, approximately 10:00 am ET:

Project Veritas (PV) reached out to Pinterest with a request for comment.

Monday, June 10th, 6:00 pm ET:

Project Veritas (PV) received a notification from Pinterest that Live Action has been removed from the domain blocklist. PV conducts a test and confirms that LA’s domain is no longer blocked.

Tuesday, June 11th, 8:15 am ET:

Project Veritas goes live with exposé.

Live Action press release goes live in conjunction with the statement that Live Action provided to Project Veritas

Live Action President Lila Rose begins the day by tweeting, “A whistleblower at @Pinterest has shared documentation with @Project_Veritas that Pinterest added http://liveaction.org  to a ‘porn block list,’ despite staff knowing we are a pro-life group, censoring our life-affirming content.”

Tuesday, June 11th, 8:23 am ET:

Live Action learns that it has been permanently suspended from Pinterest via an email time stamped 1:39 am PDT. The Pinterest ticket states that Live Action is “permanently suspended” for content that goes against “policies on misinformation” and “conspiracies that turn individuals and facilities into targets for ‘harassment or violence.’”

Tuesday, June 11th, 12:43 pm ET:

After a request for comment by an outside organization, Pinterest changes their story and claims LiveAction.org was labeled under the umbrella “porn” category for “misinformation related to conspiracies and anti-vaccination advice.”

A short time later, Rose notified her followers about the change in language by Pinterest, writing, “Pinterest now says @LiveAction is banned for “misinformation related to conspiracies & anti-vacc advice, & not porn.” Ridiculous. We’ve reported on aborted baby cell lines, but do not take a position on vaccines. The only “conspiracy” is @Pinterest’s ban on pro-life content.”

Rose then exposes Pinterest’s double standard, tweeting, “.@Pinterest allows abortion clinics to freely post ads for mail-order abortions, like the chemical pill RU-486. But they banned all @LiveAction’s pro-life posts today, saying it was because we may have ‘detrimental effects on health & public safety. What’s banned & NOT banned:” (Rose included the image below.)

Tuesday, June 11th, evening:

Alison Centofante, Live Action’s Director of External Affairs, appears on OAN in response to the blatant censorship:

Pro-Life Organization Banned From Pinterest

Live Action founder and president Lila Rose informs Tucker Carlson on FOX that the Pinterest whistleblower was escorted from the building:

Project Veritas made their announcement about their whistle blower being fired on Twitter and published it on their blog, including the video below:

Pinterest Part 2 Coming Soon...

Wednesday, June 12, 2019:

According to a report from Red State, Project Veritas’ Twitter account has been suspended.

A Tweet released June 12th by the group’s founder, James O’Keefe, reads in part, “Breaking News: Twitter has decided that investigative journalism is in violation of their terms of service – @Project_Veritas has been temporarily suspended from posting for tweeting internal communications from @Pinterest…”

Editor’s Note: This post may be updated to reflect further events related to this timeline.

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