A war veteran who was severely injured during his service in Iraq has claimed that Facebook deleted his pages, but not before he doled out $300,000 in ads to the social media giant
Brian Kolfage was the administrator of “Right Wing News” and “Military Grade Coffee,” both of which have been shut down by Facebook in an alleged crackdown against “misinformation.” Right Wing News had around 3 million followers at the time it was axed.
“Facebook lied, they shut down my page because it was conservative, powerful, and the elections are in 2 weeks,” Kolfage wrote in a previous Facebook post. “We have MAJOR support flowing in all the way from the top of the Trump administration. Get ready!”
Disabled veteran says Facebook deleted his page without warning @foxfriendsfirst pic.twitter.com/rcpl3RbbKh
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 17, 2018
Kolfage has talked about how Facebook’s censorship of his pages has caused him to teeter on the edge of financial ruin. His business “Military Grade Coffee” sells coffee that he claims to be “one of the STRONGEST on the planet.” But with no Facebook presence, his sales may be put in jeopardy. Though, judging by the product’s website, he’s not doing so bad.
“SOLD OUT – Please come back – In Stock on Monday!” a notice reads on the homepage. Click on the Facebook link, however, and you are met with a “This page isn’t available” notice.
Despite the apparent support he’s received from his loyal customer base, the military man is concerned about his future income.
“My income as a father and husband is threatened,” Kolfage wrote on Facebook. “Facebook also deleted my other business page. I own a coffee company called Military Grade Coffee Company [which donates 10% of all profits back to veteran organizations]. We don’t post politics, we sell coffee and support veteran charities. Facebook is maliciously attacking my way of life because of my beliefs, and they don’t care.”
The veteran declared that this sort of treatment “isn’t the right to free speech I gave my legs and arm to defend.”
“Three limbs wasn’t enough for some… now my livelihood is gone with it,” he continued. “Facebook took down our Facebook page, cutting off all contact we had with the millions of people who signed up to follow us, the millions of people who liked what we were sharing online. We had a coveted, verified blue check mark, 3.5 Million fans, and I invested over $300,000 in ads at Facebook’s own request, nearly begging us to spend spend spend just to reach our fans… whom they kept making more difficult to reach with every passing year.”
On a new website he has dedicated to fighting back against social media censorship, the triple amputee gives a bit more about his military background, and the vision behind his public battle against the digital media giants.
“I’m a veteran of The United States Air Force. I was severely wounded in Combat, on 9/11/2004 while serving in Iraq I lost both my legs entirely and my right hand. I’m the most severely wounded US Airman to survive,” he wrote at Fight4FreeSpeech.com. “I’m not a ‘conservative.’ I’m not a ‘liberal.’ I’m an American, with deep beliefs in what our country stands for. I proved this by vowing to protect and fighting for Americas greatest tenet: free speech.”
Kolfage continued:
“Many Americans have fought for these political freedoms … freedom of speech … and every American has enjoyed those freedoms … UNTIL TODAY. On October 11, 2018, Facebook shut down thousands of Facebook accounts for their political opinions, saying in effect that they don’t have a ‘legitimate political argument.’ STOP SOCIAL MEDIA CENSORSHIP NOW!”
One thing is for sure — this hardened veteran is not backing down from a fight.
“If I have to roll into their headquarters and sit there with people in the media, I will,” he said. “I will be there exposing everything they’ve done to me and my family and our employees. We’re going to take legal action if we don’t get our pages back. It’s just going to turn into a sloppy mess for them.”