Facebook banned Franklin Graham for violating 'hate speech' standards with more than 2-year-old post

Over the last year, Facebook has come under fire for allegedly censoring — by removing certain pages and posts — conservative and Christian thought. And according to Reverend Franklin Graham, he's the latest victim of Facebook's secretive content policing practices.

What happened?

In a Facebook post Friday, Graham — son of famed evangelist Billy Graham — explained Facebook banned him last week for allegedly violating the platform's community rules for "hate speech."

"I was banned from posting on Facebook last week for 24 hours. Why? Because of a post from back in 2016 about North Carolina's House Bill 2 (the bathroom bill). Facebook said the post went against their 'community standards on hate speech,'" Graham said.

Graham went on to rebuke Facebook for its policing policies, which he said are akin to censorship. He wrote:

Facebook is trying to define truth. There was a character in a movie a few years back who said, "The truth is what I say it is!" That's what Facebook is trying to do. They're making the rules and changing the rules. Truth is truth. God made the rules and His Word is truth. Actually, Facebook is censoring free speech. The free exchange of ideas is part of our country's DNA.

Defiantly, Graham also reposted his 2016 post that Facebook said violated its community standards.

In the post, Graham criticizes Bruce Springsteen, who he notes is "a long-time gay rights activist," for cancelling a concert in North Carolina in the wake of controversy surrounding a 2016 North Carolina law that mandated people use the bathroom of their biological gender in public places.

Graham wrote at the time: "[Springsteen] says the NC law #HB2 to prevent men from being able to use women's restrooms and locker rooms is going "backwards instead of forwards." Well, to be honest, we need to go back! Back to God. Back to respecting and honoring His commands. Back to common sense. Mr. Springsteen, a nation embracing sin and bowing at the feet of godless secularism and political correctness is not progress."