According to Newsweek, a Facebook forum for Colorado Republicans reacted badly when asked to take down a post glorifying one of the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, with a spokesperson lashing out when asked for their reasoning.
At issue is a picture of Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio who was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in jail for burning a Black Lives Matter banner and bringing high-capacity magazines into D.C. while attending a pro-Donald Trump rally.
Tarrio, who has been accused of being an FBI informant, was arrested in January after arriving in Washington, D.C., to attend the "Save America" rally that eventually led to an attack on the Capitol building by supporters of former president Trump.
Nonetheless, the North Suburban Republican Forum shared a picture of Tarrio accompanied by a quote from conservative gadfly Candace Owens that read, "What the left fears more than anything are white people and black people coming together and loving their country."
According to Newsweek, "The original image has been edited to include a Q with the words 'Q sent me' and 'WWG1WGA'—an abbreviation of the QAnon slogan 'where we go one we go all.'"
The link to the QAnon conspiracy group QAnon -- which has been designated a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI -- led critics to call for deleting the Facebook post.
A spokesperson lash out when asked for comment.
"When contacted by the Colorado Times Recorder, a spokesperson for The Forum said they will not be removing the image as they stand by the quote from Owens. The spokesperson also hit out at Big Tech censorship for their reasons in keeping the meme on their page," the report states with the spokesperson first stating, "The post is about a Candace Owens quote. Quit trying to read conspiracy things into innocent posts."
They continued, "Are you implying that we should've censored it, like the left-leaning Facebook 'fact checkers' or Twitter censorship idiots? If that's the case, why are the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], Iran's ayatollah, the Taliban, and other enemies allowed to post any and everything on social media?. That's a much better question that needs to be answered."
You can read more here.
