Social Networks Censorship Expands During US Presidential Elections

Censorship and content takedown on social networks increased during the 2016 US presidential campaign, according to a report published by the media monitoring website Onlinecensorship.org.

PORTLAND (Sputnik) — "We saw an increase in complaints of politically motivated censorship, much of it pertaining to the United States election," the report published on Wednesday said.

The report titled "Censorship in Context: Insights from Crowdsourced Data on Social Media Censorship" reviewed 294 reports of content takedown between April and November.

According to the report, most of the takedowns targeted content critical of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, which was posted by users identified as supporters of US Senator Bernie Sanders or the Republican candidate, President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump, but also numerous other critics, repeatedly stated the US election is rigged and pointed to a massive collusion between the Clinton campaign and the corporate mainstream media.

The report lacked data from earlier years, making it impossible to calibrate the claim of a censorship surge.

The group monitors social media platforms such as Facebook, Flickr, Google+, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.