Facebook Extinguishes Firefighters' Fundraiser

SAN ANGELO, TX — Facebook declared a San Angelo LIVE! article about the local firefighters' association raffle for guns to be, "Against our community standards on guns, animals and other regulated goods." The article was a write-up about the local San Angelo Firefighters' Association Fundraiser called "50 Guns in 50 Days for $50." 

The Facebook regulation defining the "community standard" stated the following:

• Only people who manage San Angelo LIVE can see this post.
• We had these standards because we want everyone to feel safe, respected, and welcome.
• If your content goes against our community standards again, your account may be restricted or disabled. 
• You can disagree with this decision if you think we got it wrong.

Essentially the article was censored by Facebook because the fundraiser was allegedly promoting the use of firearms due to the nature of prizes given away by Academy Sports and Outdoors. San Angelo LIVE! accepted the terms and agreed to have the article removed from the Facebook Platform but it was not removed from our website.

To avoid having your news censored, we recommend downloading and installing the ALL NEW San Angelo LIVE! Mobile App. It is now available for iPhones. The Android version is "in review" since Thursday last week and will be available shortly. As the presidential election of 2024 approaches, we anticipate more censorship from Big Tech, to include the ominous threat of Facebook removing our page.

Facebook accounts for 34% of our audience. In order to inoculate our news platform from the possibility of getting "banned" altogether from Facebook and losing our Facebook readers, we have initiated these significant initiatives:

1. The ALL NEW San Angelo LIVE! Mobile App - Facebook demotes our mention of the download link because our app poses a threat to Facebook's own app. So far, 8,700 people have installed our app. The app will be available for all phone platforms. The Android App is pending approval. You can download and install the iPhone version here.
2. The San Angelo LIVE! Daily Email Newspaper - An email containing all of the news we reported for the day is sent out every evening. It also has our LIVE! Daily News live stream show featured. Currently, we have over 16,000 subscribed. Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily Email here. Alternatively, you can create an account on our website that also works on the ALL NEW app and also subscribe to the LIVE! Daily Email, all in one spot, here.
3. The Google News Initiative - Although we participate in licensing our content on the Newsbreak app, we have a larger partnership with Google News and we are the only San Angelo news organization invited to be on the Google News app. You can download and install the Google News App for iPhone here, or download the Android version here.
4. Testing X - Since Elon Musk has purchased Twitter, now X, free speech appears to be thriving on that platform. We have become wildly active on X to see if we can create a new groundswell of readers who aren't on Facebook. Follow San Angelo LIVE! on X.

If you'd like to learn more about the naughty, censored, and banned San Angelo Fire Fighters' Association gun raffle, click here.