O’Dea claims his posts are being censored by big tech, declines to provide specific evidence

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO)-- Colorado Republican U.S. candidate Joe O'Dea says he is being censored by big tech. O'Dea's campaign is running a digital ad on Facebook, saying Google is taking down his posts.

In a story first publicized by 9News in Denver, O'Dea's campaign posted an ad that leads to a fundraiser that reads, "Google is CENSORING Joe O’Dea’s grassroots campaign because just like Biden and Bennet, they know he has the winning message to FLIP this 1 SEAT needed to reclaim the 50-50 Senate." The ad goes on to say, "With just WEEKS left in this election, I’m counting on the help of grassroots Americans like YOU to help me counter this censorship by increasing the reach of our TV ads."

Facebook and Google both provide ad transparency that allows the public to see postings from candidates. KRDO found one post from O'Dea's campaign that was taken down. The post ran from June 2 through June 29. The ad shows it was removed by Google for violating terms but does not say what was shown on the ad.

KRDO asked O'Dea about the claim at a campaign event Thursday.

"Look, I got a crack team there. They found some anomalies. They addressed it with Google and they cleaned it up," O'Dea said. When asked if he believed he was still being censored, as his ad and fundraiser suggest, O'Dea replied, " I think at this point we've got it straightened out."

O'Dea's campaign wouldn't speak further on what was pulled down and why. The campaign issued a statement saying, "These platforms play content police in an unfair way. They put out vague policies purposefully, then throttle and pull ads, while also being slow to respond. This happened to our campaign and voters have a right to know.” 

O'Dea is not the first Colorado Republican candidate to make a claim like this. Gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl has said her posts are being taken down by Facebook. Facebook's parent company told 9News that Ganahl's team just didn't fill out a required disclaimer on a form.

As far as the Democrats, a party spokesperson told KRDO they haven't had the same alleged issues.